House votes to extend Obamacare subsidies, prolonging problems: CEI analysis

On Thursday, the House passed a three-year extension of the enhanced premium tax credits for Obamacare enrollees. These enhanced credits were originally created during COVID and set to expire in 2023. They were extended again through 2025 in the Inflation Reduction Act.

CEI Senior Fellow and Economist Jeremy Nighohossian said:

“The Affordable Care Act has failed to achieve many of the goals set by its authors, including its namesake objective of making health care affordable. The added subsidies covered up its failures and increased improper enrollment, and extending them for a further three years will prolong and grow those problems.

“The Senate should ignore this bill and focus on reforming the ACA to increase affordability by improving the structure and incentives, not papering over added costs with debt-financed subsidies.

“There are a multitude of reforms to consider, including expanded Health Savings Accounts, a fix for the Cost Sharing Reduction error, and deregulation. Congress should not just ‘kick the can down the road’, postponing problems for others to fix or else repeat the cycle over again. The time to fix the ACA is now.”