The COVID Relief Bill Expands The Affordable Care Act. It Doesn’t Come Cheap – By Noam N. Levey (NPR) / Mar 23 2021
When Democrats pushed through a two-year expansion of the Affordable Care Act in the COVID-19 relief bill this month, many people celebrated the part that will make health insurance more affordable for more Americans.
But some health care researchers consider this move a short-term fix for a long-term crisis, one that avoids confronting an uncomfortable truth: The only clear path to expanding health insurance remains yet more government subsidies for commercial health plans, which are the most costly form of coverage.
The ACA’s reliance on private plans — a hard-fought compromise in the 2010 health law that was designed to win over industry — already costs taxpayers tens of billions of dollars each year, as the federal government picks up a share of the insurance premiums for about 9 million Americans.
The price tag will now rise higher because of the recently enacted $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill. The legislation will direct some $20 billion more to insurance companies by making larger premium subsidies available to consumers who buy qualified plans.
