As the window for Americans to enroll in an Affordable Care Act health plan closes in most states today, millions of Americans remain in limbo as Congress weighs whether to extend tax subsidies designed to lower the cost of Obamacare insurance.
Congress has been locked in a showdown for months over the fate of the enhanced ACA premium tax credits, which expired on Dec. 31. The fight over the subsidies was central to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, which dragged on for six weeks.
The House approved a measure last week to extend the tax credits for three years after 17 Republicans joined Democrats in forcing a vote on the issue. Yet the extension faces an uphill climb in the Republican-controlled Senate, which previously rejected a separate plan to extend the credits for three years.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is working on a compromise that includes a two-year extension of the ACA subsidies, but GOP senators said Thursday that progress has stalled.
Separately, President Trump on Thursday announced a health care proposal that the White House said would “send money directly to the American people, lower health insurance premiums and cut kickbacks that raise insurance premiums.”
In the meantime, the clock is ticking for Americans to make decisions about their coverage. The deadline to sign up for health insurance through the ACA marketplace is Jan. 15 for most states. However, 10 states are offering an extended enrollment window to give residents extra time to select a plan.
States with extended ACA enrollment deadlines, according to healthinsurance.org:
- California: Jan. 31
- Connecticut: Jan. 31
- District of Columbia: Jan. 31
- Massachusetts: Jan. 23
- Illinois: Jan. 31
- New Jersey: Jan. 31
- New York: Jan. 31
- Pennsylvania: Jan. 31
- Rhode Island: Jan. 31
- Virginia: Jan. 30
For those yet to enroll in an ACA plan, the higher costs are sure to be a consideration. Nonprofit health group KFF previously estimated that, barring action by Congress, Obamacare premiums could more than double this year for the more than 20 million Americans who previously received the tax credits.
“The end of open enrollment in many states and the most recent enrollment numbers confirm what people across the country are already feeling: We are in a health care affordability crisis,” said Michelle Sternthal, interim senior director of policy and strategy at Community Catalyst, a health care advocacy group. “When Congress failed to extend the enhanced premium tax credits, premiums spiked overnight.”
Some people are dumping their ACA coverage due to steeper costs. Florida resident Stacy Kanas, 59, told CBS News that her family is dropping its ACA plan after learning that their premiums would spike.
“That is why we’re not choosing to be covered at this time,” she said. “It’s cost-prohibitive.”
ACA premiums for “silver” plans, the second lowest-cost Obamacare coverage, have jumped nearly 22% in 2026, according to a recent analysis by the Urban Institute. By comparison, the nonpartisan think tank projected that health insurance costs for employer-sponsored plans would rise by no more than 7% this year.
Data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows 22.8 million people had enrolled in ACA marketplace plans as of Jan. 12, down 1.4 million from the number of Americans who had enrolled in Obamacare, as the health plans are known, a year ago.
Can Congress extend the credits after open enrollment ends?
Technically, there is no deadline for Congress to extend the ACA tax credits, leaving the door open for a congressional remedy, experts have noted.
“The ACA premium subsidies are refundable tax credits, which are calculated on an annual basis,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, said in a December blog post, “So, an extension could happen even after the deadline to sign up for coverage and be made retroactive to January 1.”
If the credits are preserved, Levitt said state and federal ACA marketplaces would update their systems, and open enrollment would be extended to give people more time to sort through plan options. However, if a resolution comes later in the year, it could make matters more difficult, Levitt said.
“Any changes to the ACA tax credits mid-year would complicate the logistics and slow down the reopening of enrollment and the premium relief,” he said in a post.
