Calculating Marketplace Enrollees’ Possible Cost Increases
How much more would people pay if the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits expire?
KFF’s newly updated tax credit calculator allows Marketplace enrollees to compare how their out-of-pocket premium payments could differ if lawmakers extend the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits or allow them to expire this year. To demonstrate the range of effects, KFF examines in a separate data note what the loss of the enhanced tax credits would mean for different households.
The expiration of the enhanced credits will affect many middle-income Marketplace enrollees as well those with low incomes, some of whom could see major out-of-pocket premium increases. With the enhanced tax credits, enrollees earning over 400% of poverty ($106,600 for a family of three in 2026) will not spend more than 8.5% of their incomes on out-of-pocket premiums for benchmark plans. Without the enhanced tax credits, these same enrollees will experience a “double whammy” in cost increases, not only losing all financial assistance available through the premium tax credits but also needing to cover the premium increases Marketplace insurers are planning for next year.
