AHIP urges Congress to extend ACA tax credits ahead of Senate vote
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AHIP urges Congress to extend ACA tax credits ahead of Senate vote America’s Health Insurance Plans also responds to GAO report on fraud risk in the program.
Population Health By Susan Morse , Executive Editor | December 9, 2025 | 10:08 AM Photo: Joe Daniel Price/Getty Images As Senate Republicans struggle to unite on a healthcare plan to replace Obamacare, AHIP, America’s Health Insurance Plans, is urging an extension of the enhanced premium tax credits that help beneficiaries afford plans in the Affordable Care Act marketplace.“With open enrollment underway and 24 million Americans facing the largest-ever spike in health care costs in 2026, Congress should take bipartisan action to preserve the health care tax credits and further strengthen program integrity,” AHIP said.Senate Democrats on Thursday are expected to vote on a three-year extension of the ACA tax credits, according to The Hill. Republicans are reportedly trying to coalesce around their own healthcare plan to present at a Republican conference today.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Monday that Republicans won’t necessarily put up a GOP healthcare alternative for a vote on Thursday, according to The Hill report.WHY THIS MATTERSAHIP also responded to a December 3 fraud risk report released by the Government Accountability Office. “So far, we've found that fraud risks have persisted since we first reported on this (2014-2016),” the GAO said. “For example, we were able to get subsidized insurance for fake enrollees. We also found some issues with enrollees' Social Security numbers that could indicate identity fraud.”AHIP offered integrity measures such as multi-factor authentication and other “common-sense reforms” to prevent unauthorized enrollment. It also recommended stronger eligibility checks as consumers move between Medicaid and ACA marketplace coverage.Bipartisan program integrity reforms are currently under consideration in Congress, AHIP said.“The activity in the newly-released GAO report predates significant reforms to prevent inappropriate enrollment,” AHIP said. “For example, CMS acted decisively last year to halt unauthorized enrollments and plan switching—the very problems highlighted in the GAO analysis.” State and federal marketplaces are responsible for determining consumers’ eligibility for enrollment and financial assistance. AHIP said steps to strengthen program integrity include enhanced income-verification requirements, ending automatic enrollment and other provisions included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the Marketplace Integrity and Affordability Rule.“GAO acknowledges that CMS took decisive action in response to complaints of unauthorized enrollments and plan switches in 2023-2024, including suspending agents and brokers for suspicious activity, implementing 3-way calling to block unauthorized broker activity, and strengthened identity verification including requiring a verifiable SSN for broker-submitted applications,” AHIP said. “Once implemented, these policies drove a significant decline in unauthorized activity. Moreover, as GAO acknowledges, the report’s findings ‘cannot be generalized to the overall enrollment population.’”THE LARGER TRENDThe enhanced premium tax credits are due to expire at the end of the year.A KFF report released last week found that one in four ACA marketplace enrollees would “very likely” go without health insurance should the tax credits end, according to the KFF poll released Thursday.About 22 million of the 24 million marketplace enrollees have benefited from the expiring enhanced tax credits, KFF said, and without them, their premium payments are expected to rise an average of 114%, from $888 to $1,904 annually. Topic: Accounting & Financial Management, Policy and Legislation, Population Health