{"id":97708,"date":"2024-12-11T13:03:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T21:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2024\/12\/11\/more-than-70-organizations-urge-congress-to-extend-enhanced-premium-tax-credits\/"},"modified":"2024-12-11T13:03:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T21:03:15","slug":"more-than-70-organizations-urge-congress-to-extend-enhanced-premium-tax-credits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2024\/12\/11\/more-than-70-organizations-urge-congress-to-extend-enhanced-premium-tax-credits\/","title":{"rendered":"More Than 70 Organizations Urge Congress To Extend Enhanced Premium Tax Credits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a letter, Families USA and numerous other organizations called on Congress to extend the enhanced premium tax credits that are set to expire at the end of 2025.<br \/>\nThe post More Than 70 Organizations Urge Congress To Extend Enhanced Premium Tax Credits appeared first on Above the Law.<\/p>\n<p>More than 70 organizations, led by Families USA, sent a <a href=\"https:\/\/familiesusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Extend-APTC-Letter.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">letter<\/a> to Congress on Monday calling on them to extend the enhanced premium tax credits that are set to expire at the end of 2025. The enhanced premium tax credits, introduced in 2021, reduced health insurance premiums for millions of individuals purchasing coverage through the marketplace.<\/p>\n<p>Families USA is an advocacy organization for healthcare consumers. The letter also includes child advocates, labor groups, equity organizations, patients, providers, disability rights groups and aging organizations.<\/p>\n<p>The premium tax credit is a refundable credit that lowers the out-of-pocket cost of health insurance premiums for those who receive insurance via the marketplaces. Originally available to individuals with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) expanded eligibility to those with incomes above 400% of the federal poverty level and lowered the maximum household contribution.<\/p>\n<p>If the enhanced premium tax credits expire at the end of 2025, older and rural households will be especially impacted, according to the letter. The organizations noted that one in five small business owners and self-employed workers rely on the marketplaces for coverage. In addition, premiums would double for many people and millions would completely lose coverage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCongress needs to take action as soon as possible, because while the credits are not set to expire in federal statute until December 31, 2025, Americans will feel the impacts far sooner,\u201d the letter stated. \u201cHealth insurers will begin setting next year\u2019s rates as early as this spring, new rates will be announced by summer, and by fall people in every Congressional district will experience premium shock when they shop for 2026 plans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The letter also cited a new <a href=\"https:\/\/americanscovered.org\/new-poll-86-of-2024-voters-want-new-president-and-congress-to-extend-expiring-health-care-tax-credits\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">survey<\/a> that found 86% of 2024 voters want the tax credits extended, and the organizations argued that it\u2019s now Congress\u2019 responsibility to \u201cdemonstrate that they are listening to that call from their constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The organizations also gave specific examples of people who would be affected by the enhanced premium tax credits expiring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople in every community are at risk,\u201d they said. \u201cThis includes people like Dean, a 34-year-old self-employed designer, who used his tax credit to afford a plan with a lower deductible and out-of-pocket maximum \u2013 which proved crucial to him when he was diagnosed with cancer that would have otherwise subjected him to financial ruin. Jenny, a 64-year-old woman who used her tax credit to buy a plan for $500 per month that helped cover her million dollar hospital bill and treatment after she experienced a stroke. Without that coverage \u2013 facilitated by the tax credit \u2013 she and her husband would have lost their home and life savings to pay for care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The letter comes after the Congressional Budget Office released a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbo.gov\/system\/files\/2024-12\/59230-ARPA.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">report<\/a> last week on the enhanced premium tax credits. It found that if there isn\u2019t an extension through 2026, the number of people without insurance will increase by 2.2 million in that year and gross benchmark premiums will increase by 4.3% on average.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: alexsl, Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a letter, Families USA and numerous other organizations called on Congress to extend the enhanced premium tax credits that are set to expire at the end of 2025. The post More Than 70 Organizations Urge Congress To Extend Enhanced Premium Tax Credits appeared first on Above the Law. More than 70 organizations, led by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":97709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/transfer-money-computer-cash-tax-avoidance-Panama-Papers-Q3k5QR.jpeg?fit=1587%2C1152&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}