Six Reasons Not to Extend the Obamacare Subsidies
Adam Michel, in “Six Reasons Not to Extend the Obamacare Subsidies,” October 7, 2025, writes:
At the center of the government shutdown is a disagreement over whether to extend a temporary pandemic-era expansion of the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credits. These subsidies cover health insurance premiums for the roughly 7 percent of Americans who use the government-run Obamacare insurance marketplace. Sold as a temporary boost during the COVID-19 pandemic, the subsidies are costly, fraud-prone, and primarily pad insurance companies’ profits.
While the pandemic plus-up expires at the end of 2025, the originally designed Obamacare subsidy is permanent. The temporary expansion, enacted under the American Rescue Plan Act and later extended by the Inflation Reduction Act, increased the size and made the subsidies more widely available.
Here are six reasons Congress should not extend the inflated pandemic insurance subsidies:
He then lists the 6 reasons and says succinctly why each is a good reason. I recommend reading his whole post.
The is really just one. Poor people should not have access to the same inefficient subsidized healthcare that the rest of us “enjoy.”
There is some real nonsense in his post. this is to be expected by one who likely has never run a health insurance plan (I have). Just because people don't file claims when they have an insurance plan means little. Lots of ACA participants are gig economy workers who are likely quite young and healthy. Of course they are not going to file claims! This has been my observation as well where costs in out plan are driven by only 15% of the enrollees. this is not fraud!
I have had close relatives and friends on ACA policies as they don't have access to an employer provided plan for various reasons. Employer plans tend to be far cheaper and provide more benefits than do ACA plans. Michel should look at this as an inequity and deal with that aspect. Look at all the tax money the USG foregoes by letting companies deduct healthcare insurance.
Obviously, premiums should be adjusted for income and as David is well aware Medicare adjusts premiums depending on one's AGI from the previous tax year (we got a rude surprise when we sold our house and had a hefty capital gain that through the two of us into the highest Medicare premium category; ouch).
I don't know the Paragon Health Study he cites, but I do know that insurance company earnings have been pretty flat for the past five years relative to the market at large.