House to Vote on Debt-Financed Extension of Enhanced ACA Subsidies

The House passed a discharge petition teeing up a vote on an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies this week, which expired at the end of 2025. The proposal would include a clean three-year extension of the enhanced subsidies at an estimated cost of $83 billion. On a permanent basis, the extension would cost about $350 billion over a decade. There have been multiple plans to address the expiring subsidies put forward in recent weeks – read our explainer on the ACA premiums here.

The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

Kicking off 2026 by agreeing to borrow an additional $83 billion dollars is no way to celebrate. Our fiscal resolution should be No New Borrowing, not to ratchet up our debt even further. While this proposal for a three-year extension may be seen as quick and easy, it’s certainly not cheap.

It makes sense to find ways to make health care more affordable, but the focus should be on reducing overall costs rather than simply changing who pays. Ideas like adopting site-neutral payments in Medicare and reducing Medicare Advantage overpayments could save hundreds of billions of dollars for the government and for beneficiaries.  

If we choose to also extend subsidies, we should do so in a way that lowers and fully offsets their cost, while reducing deficits and health spending in the process. There are easily enough bipartisan health savers to offset any costs twice-over.

Layering an additional $83 billion in debt on younger generations is reckless and Grinchy; we might as well ask them to return all of their holiday gifts while we are at it so we can spend the money on ourselves. Policies that are worth pursuing are worth paying for, and we should start immediately.  

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For more information, please contact Matt Klucher, Assistant Director for Media Relations, at klucher@crfb.org.