Affordable Care Act Subsidies Have Expired

The subsidies were a contentious issue in Congress during the government shutdown that lasted from October to mid-November.

Pages from the U.S. Affordable Care Act health insurance website healthcare.gov on a computer screen in New York on Aug. 19, 2025. AP Photo/Patrick Sison, File

Subsidies that were offered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expired at the end of 2025, meaning some Americans may have to pay higher health insurance premiums.

The ACA subsidies were designed to help lower or eliminate the out-of-pocket cost of monthly premiums for people who purchase health insurance coverage through a health insurance marketplace.

The expired subsidies were first given to enrollees of the ACA, also known as Obamacare, in 2021 as a temporary measure to help Americans get through the COVID-19 pandemic. Democrats in power at the time extended them, moving the expiration date to the start of 2026.

They became a contentious issue in Congress during the government shutdown that lasted from October to mid-November of last year, although no deal was hashed out when the government was reopened. However, members of Congress are likely to make them a focus again as funding for the government is set to lapse later this month.

“The ACA tax credits expire at midnight,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) said in a post on X on Wednesday morning. “Millions will see their premiums skyrocket because Republicans refused to act. You deserve better, and Democrats will keep fighting to lower costs.”

Health analysts have predicted that the expiration of the subsidies will drive many of the 24 million total Affordable Care Act enrollees to forgo health insurance coverage altogether. An analysis conducted last September by the Urban Institute and Commonwealth Fund projected that the higher premiums from expiring subsidies would prompt some 4.8 million Americans to drop coverage in 2026.

According to a KFF analysis released in December, people who purchase marketplace insurance and get financial assistance could see their premiums rise by around 114 percent on average, or $888 in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026.

At the same time, KFF found that insurers in the ACA Marketplace may raise rates by a median of 18 percent, which would be the largest increase since 2018.

“As premiums increase, the enhanced tax credits provide additional savings to enrollees that receive them,” it said. “This means that middle-income enrollees, whose payment for a benchmark plan is currently capped at 8.5 percent of their income and will lose financial assistance altogether, will have to cover the cost of premium increases in addition to the amount their tax credits would have previously covered to keep their same plan.”

In December, the Senate rejected two partisan health care bills—a Democratic pitch to extend the subsidies for three more years and a Republican alternative that would instead provide Americans with health savings accounts.

In the House, four Republicans broke with GOP leadership and joined Democrats to force a vote that could come as soon as January on a three-year extension of the tax credits. But with the Senate already having rejected such a plan, it’s unclear whether it could get enough momentum to pass.

President Donald Trump has said that he wants direct payments made to Americans so they can buy their own insurance, again making the suggestion in a recent statement on Truth Social.

“Republicans: No more money to Fat Cat Insurance Companies,” he wrote in the post, issued Thursday. “The money must go directly to the people to buy their own Healthcare.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.