by (Recorder of Georgia) U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff stated at a press conference Thursday that if Congress does not act to prolong the Affordable Care Act-enhanced premium tax credits, Georgians may experience a 40% spike in their health insurance costs.
According to Democrat Ossoff, he is pressing Republicans in Congress to change their minds about letting the credits that lower the cost of ACA health insurance for middle-class and low-income families expire. The credits are now available to families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or $62,600 for a household headed by one person and $128,600 for a household of four.
Ossoff cautioned that in the absence of the credits, health care expenses are anticipated to skyrocket, requiring families to either pay more out of pocket or abandon health insurance completely.
According to Ossoff, Georgia families don’t need to be paying thousands of dollars extra annually for health insurance at a time when they’re already struggling to make ends meet with rent, mortgage, vehicle payments, gas, and groceries.
The GOP budget reconciliation measure, which supporters have dubbed the “big, beautiful bill,” was signed into law by President Donald Trump in July and is expected to deprive some 310,000 Georgians of health insurance by 2034. According to data from the nonprofit health policy research group KFF, that figure may increase to 750,000 if Congress let the expanded tax credits for people with Affordable Care Act insurance to expire this year.
The credits, which were initially made available as part of the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, are linked to historically high ACA enrollment rates. 96% of registrants in Georgia use advanced premium tax credits to partially or completely pay for their medical expenses. After California, Georgia Access, the state insurance marketplace, is the second-largest in the nation.
According to Whitney Griggs, director of health policy at Georgians for a Healthy Future, a patient advocacy group, the improved premium tax credits have made Georgia Access so effective and have enabled hundreds of thousands of Georgians to obtain coverage for the first time.
Ossoff pushed to renew the credits with the support of other groups that support access to health care.
Numerous people will be impacted by this, according to Lloyd Sirmons, executive director of the Georgia Rural Health Association. It will have an impact on your senior citizens, whose premiums would increase significantly. Your small business owners and their employees will be impacted because their premiums will increase.
“When people have to start deciding whether they’re going to be able to pay for their food or whether they’re going to be able to pay for their health care, that’s the thing that really kind of resonates with me most,” Sirmons continued.
As early as their first week back in session, Congress might move legislation to extend the credits, according to Ossoff. Following Labor Day, both houses will resume their August recess.
