COVID-19 is long over, but vestiges of its spending spree and the progressive policies it drove still linger in Washington.
Under the guise of COVID-19 relief, Democrats jammed through their $2 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, less than 9% of which went to combating the pandemic. Instead, it financed stimulus checks for illegals, funded schools that closed their doors to children, and bailed out union pensions.
One of the Democrats’ worst COVID-19 power grabs was former President Joe Biden using the pandemic as cover to dramatically expand Obamacare through a scheme of temporary “enhanced” premium tax credits. Democrats removed all income eligibility limits on existing Obamacare tax credits — allowing those making upwards of $600,000 a year to receive taxpayer-subsidized health care coverage — and stripped out even modest cost-sharing for low- and middle-income Americans.
Furthermore, the Biden administration weakened eligibility verification safeguards, reduced tax reporting, and allowed insurance brokers to game the system by switching enrollees’ plans monthly. Not surprisingly, the program became another gravy train for waste and fraud.
The Congressional Budget Office reports that in 2025 alone, 2.3 million people received credits for which they were not eligible, oftentimes by misreporting their income. In fact, the federal government pays out more subsidies than the entire number of people eligible for the program.
How does this happen? Many “free plan” enrollees are “phantoms”, with 40% of all enrollees having zero claims. That means millions never used or never realized they were “covered” while insurance companies happily raked in the taxpayer-subsidized premiums.
Despite Democrats designing these temporary COVID-19 credits to expire this year, they now not only want to extend them — they want to make them permanent. Their plan calls for locking in this failed, fraud-ridden system at a cost to taxpayers of more than $400 billion.
As Milton Friedman warned, “nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” We have seen this playbook from Democrats too many times: call it an “emergency,” pile on “temporary” spending, prey on the fears of enrollees, and strong-arm Congress into making the program permanent.
The truth is, even after the Biden COVID-19 credits expire, low- and middle-income families will continue to have access to affordable coverage. Obamacare’s traditional tax credits will operate as designed. A family of four making up to roughly $130,000 a year will still have access to generous premium tax credits. Most enrollees will still have the option to enroll in a plan with little to no out-of-pocket premium cost, and taxpayers will still cover an average of 90% of premiums for enrollees.
The bottom line is this — we need to lower health care costs across the board, not erroneously claim to make it more “affordable” by throwing more money at it.
Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, we passed legislation to not only cut taxes for working families and rein in uncontrolled federal spending but also lower Obamacare premiums for all enrollees by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, as confirmed by CBO. If Democrats truly cared about making health care more affordable for low- and middle-income Americans, they would have supported those common-sense measures. Despite this, every Democrat voted no.
There are common-sense steps we can take to build on this progress. Funding cost-sharing reductions — a type of assistance designed to reduce enrollees’ out-of-pocket costs — would lower premiums by nearly 14% and save roughly $30 billion. Market-based reforms like expanding association health plans and individual coverage health reimbursement accounts would give small businesses powerful new tools to provide affordable health coverage to employees. The Trump administration has taken meaningful steps to make short-term and catastrophic health plans more accessible.
Over the long term, we must address the real driver of skyrocketing health care costs — consolidation fueling monopolies. Pursuing site-neutral payment reforms would equalize the cost of services covered in and outside hospital facilities. Reining in pharmacy benefit managers, which act as middlemen and take kickbacks, would lower drug costs for consumers. And bolstering price transparency would empower patients to make value-based care decisions.
NANCY PELOSI SHOWS NO SIGNS OF FREEING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY FROM HER GRIP
Biden’s COVID-19 credits give free healthcare away to millions and, with no “skin in the game,” rob them of the dignity of personal responsibility. Biden’s efforts to weaken eligibility guardrails encouraged fraud and wasteful spending. The credits subsidize wealthy individuals on the backs of taxpayers, are a poor stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and make a broken healthcare system worse. They should not be extended, let alone made permanent.
Congress should abide by the expiration date of this misguided COVID-19-era policy Democrats set and get to work on real solutions. Let’s put an end to the legacy of COVID giveaways and focus on reforms that lower costs, expand affordable options, and protect American taxpayers.
Jodey Arrington is the Chairman of the House Budget Committee
