WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) published the findings from a report she commissioned along with Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Mark Warner (D-VA) detailing the disastrous impacts Republican-led cuts to health care, including allowing highly-effective Affordable Care Act premium tax credits (PTCs) to expire this year, will have on Americans’ health insurance plans.
The report, crafted by the Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reforms, outlines significant premium price increases and coverage loss for millions of Americans fueled by expiring Affordable Care Act PTCs, President Trump’s tariff policies, cuts to health care in the Republicans’ budget bill and rising health care costs. The report finds that low- and middle-income Americans who are older and living in rural areas will be disproportionately affected, and that one commonly cited factor driving 2026 rate increases is the looming expiration of PTCS.
“This report makes clear what we already knew: instead of lowering costs, Donald Trump’s and Republicans’ agenda is stripping away health care from millions of Americans, jacking up the price of health care on Wisconsin’s working families, and leaving our rural hospitals out to dry. One thing is crystal clear: we need to renew these tax breaks for families so they can afford health care, and if Congress doesn’t – Republicans will own that,” said Senator Baldwin.
In a letter to the Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reforms last month, Baldwin and her colleagues asked for answers to a series of questions about how Americans should prepare for the changes indicated by health insurer rate filings in the wake of Republican actions to make unprecedented cuts to health care coverage.
The report finds that the loss of enhanced premium tax credits will lead to the largest premium increases in almost a decade, and will disproportionately hurt Americans who are older, low- and middle-income, self-employed, and living in rural areas. It also finds that one of the top cited factors driving 2026 rate increases is the expected expiration of enhanced premium tax credits, and that, as the expiration of PTCs makes coverage less affordable, insurers expect enrollment to decline significantly.
The analysis asserts that the expiration of the PTCs, coupled with health provisions in the Republican reconciliation bill, increasing medical costs and President Trump’s tariff policy creates a uniquely costly Marketplace that will undoubtedly hurt consumers and lead to large coverage losses.
Senator Baldwin has long championed legislation to extend the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits that help Americans afford health insurance. In January of this year, Senator Baldwin introduced her landmark Health Care Affordability Act—legislation to permanently extend enhanced premium tax credits for Marketplace coverage that have lowered health care costs for millions of Americans.
The full report is available here.
An online version of this release is available here.
