Republicans face new pressure to extend expiring Obamacare tax credits
Source: NBC News
June 2, 2025, 6:00 AM EDT
WASHINGTON — Kenny Capps is a cancer patient who has been battling multiple myeloma for a decade. A 53-year-old father of three children who lives in North Carolina, he was on the brink of losing his health insurance coverage due to rising costs — until Democrats passed an Obamacare funding boost four years ago.
“Thanks to the enhanced premium tax credits, we were able to keep affording insurance,” Capps told NBC News during a recent visit to Washington to raise awareness about the issue. “It had almost doubled to the point of my mortgage at that time, so I was getting close to the point of having to make decisions as to whether I was going to pay my bills or have health insurance.”
Capps makes too much money to qualify for Medicaid. He falls outside the subsidy range originally set by Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act. And his income hasn’t been keeping up with the ever-rising cost of health care. “Like a lot of Americans,” he said, “I’m stuck in the middle.”
His fortunes changed when Congress capped premiums for a “benchmark” plan to 8.5% of income. “So thanks to that, I was able to continue treatment,” he said. But there’s a catch: That funding expires at the end of 2025, and the Democrats who passed it along party lines (first in early 2021, before extending it the following year) have since been swept out of power. The new Republican-led Congress has made clear it won’t extend the money in the “big, beautiful bill” it’s using as a vehicle for President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republicans-face-new-pressure-extend-expiring-obamacare-tax-credits-rcna209281
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