Much handwringing has been made over the looming expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at the end of 2025, but there’s another tax change scheduled to disappear that millions of Americans should also eye: the enhanced premium tax credit, or PTC.
If Congress doesn’t extend the enhanced credit next year, insurance premiums will rise or become too unaffordable for nearly every enrollee, analysts said.
PTC was expanded, or enhanced, during President Joe Biden’s administration to help individuals afford health insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace.
It opened the credit to Americans with incomes above 400% of the Federal Poverty Line (FPL) and offered a more generous subsidy for those below 400%. The administration also expanded the ACA requirement that a health plan premium not be more than 8.5% of an individual’s income to those with incomes above 400% of the FPL. The Inflation Reduction Act put an expiration on the enhanced PTC at the end of 2025.
How many people will be affected if enhanced PTC isn’t extended?
“Nearly all 21 million Marketplace enrollees will face higher premium costs, forcing them to grapple with impossible trade-offs or the prospect of dropping health insurance altogether,” said Claire Heyison, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CPBB). She estimates 4 million people would lose health coverage and become uninsured.
The average enrollee saved an estimated $700 in 2024 because of…
