Amid Efforts to Reopen Government, Shaheen Hosts Health Care Roundtable on Importance of Extending ACA Enhanced Premium Tax Credits

(Concord, NH) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), author of bicameral legislation that would permanently extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits, continued her “Affordability Action Tour” with a roundtable discussion at New Futures with health care advocates, small business owners and Granite Staters that use the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace for their health insurance coverage and are at risk of significantly higher premiums if the enhanced premium tax credits expire at the end of this year. Photos from today’s roundtable can be found HERE.

Key quotes from Senator Shaheen:

• “We've actually tried to extend them [ACA enhanced premium tax credits] four times this year [...] that's what the fight over the government shutdown is about. And I happen to believe that we ought to be able to keep the government open and extend these premium tax credits to keep people on their health insurance.”

• “As we've been having this debate in Washington, our [Republican] colleagues, they keep saying they don't expire until December, so why do we need to do anything right now? And we keep saying, because there's urgency; because insurance companies are setting the rates now.”

• "We have the lowest number of uninsured ever in New Hampshire [...] and those premium tax credits have a lot to do with it. That has relieved some of the pressure on the health care system as a whole. [...] We've already had four facilities closed in New Hampshire since the passage of the legislation [Big Beautiful Betrayal] in the summer, because there's anticipation about what the impact of that's going to be.”

• "Almost 50% of the people who are receiving the [ACA enhanced] premium tax credits are small business owners and their employees. And so, if this goes away, the options decrease dramatically. It's not just about people who are receiving those tax credits. It's also about all the other people who benefit, because the community health centers are operating; because their small businesses that are keeping the economy moving; and people are working. And it has a real impact.”

• “When the costs go up, the healthy people are going to drop their health insurance. That means it's going to be a sicker and sicker risk pool. That it's going to cost more and more, and those costs are going to ripple through the whole system. So, this idea that we don't have to worry about this because it's only going to affect those people who get the premium tax credits, is wrong.”

• “76% of people who are benefiting from these premium tax credits are in states that Donald Trump won in the presidency. 56% of them are in Republican congressional districts. 57% of people identify as MAGA Republicans who get these premium tax credits. So we need to let people know what's coming and what they can do about it, because this is the kind of thing that a grassroots effort really does make a difference.”

Shaheen is leading efforts in Congress to make health care more affordable through the preservation and extension of enhanced premium tax credits which are at the center of the ongoing government funding fight. In early February, Shaheen hosted a press conference at New Futures to highlight her landmark Health Care Affordability Act—bicameral legislation with U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and U.S. Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (IL-14) to permanently extend the tax credits for Marketplace coverage that have lowered health care costs for millions of Americans. The legislation was Shaheen’s first bill introduced this Congress.

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