Senate Lets COVID-Era Obamacare Super Subsidies Expire

Washington keeps reaching for the same failed solution in health care: bigger subsidies for a system that is already too expensive and too insurer-driven. That approach took a hit last week when the U.S. Senate rejected an extension of the COVID-era Obamacare “super subsidies.” The vote was a reminder that affordability will not be fixed by writing bigger checks to big insurance companies. Real reform has to start with empowering patients.

As reported by the Associated Press, Senate Democrats failed to advance legislation that would have extended the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits enacted during the pandemic. Those subsidies were always billed as temporary emergency relief. Last week’s vote keeps them on track to expire, rather than turning them into a permanent entitlement.

That distinction matters. Temporary spending almost never stays temporary in Washington. Extending the super subsidies would have locked in hundreds of billions of dollars in long-term federal commitments while doing nothing to address why premiums are high in the first place.

Obamacare’s core problem is structural. It relies on heavy regulation and massive subsidies to sustain a market dominated by large insurers. The subsidies do not lower underlying costs. They mask them. Families feel relief only as long as the government keeps paying more of the bill, and that relief disappears the moment Congress changes course.

Health care solutions should move in the opposite direction. Patient-centered reforms focus on competition, choice, and control. That means policies that allow families to choose coverage that fits their needs, use their own health care dollars, and benefit from lower prices driven by competition rather than government mandates.

The focus now shifts to the U.S. House, where Speaker Mike Johnson has said lawmakers will take up health care legislation this week. That debate should not revolve around how to prop up Obamacare with more subsidies. It should focus on reforms that lower costs directly and put patients, not insurers, back in charge.

COVID-era policies were never meant to last forever. Letting the super subsidies expire is the right step. The next step should be clear as well: stop doubling down on a subsidy-driven system and start advancing patient-first health care reform.