How well-targeted are the American Rescue Plan Act’s Premium tax credits?
How well-targeted are the American Rescue Plan Act’s Premium tax credits?
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- Simpson, Michael, author
Holahan, John, author
Banthin, Jessica, author
Buettgens, Matthew, author
Wengle, Erik, author - Contributor(s):
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, issuing body.
Urban Institute, issuing body. - Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, July 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Financing, Government -- organization & administration
Health Equity -- economics
Health Policy
Insurance, Health -- economics
Social Mobility
Socioeconomic Factors
United States - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- A major question facing Congress is whether to extend the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) premium tax credits (PTCs). Some have raised concerns about providing these benefits to people with incomes above 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). The ARPA made subsidies more generous at each income level and newly extended subsidies to people with incomes above 400 percent of FPL by limiting the amount people at this income level would pay for Marketplace coverage to 8.5 percent of income; before the ARPA, people with incomes above 400 percent of FPL were ineligible for any PTC, regardless of the premium they faced in the Marketplace. Some argue that this unnecessarily extends subsidies to people with high incomes and does not target federal dollars to those in the lowest-income groups. In this brief, we show that the ARPA enhanced PTCs largely increase benefits for people with incomes at or below 400 percent of FPL, but they also provide important benefits for people at somewhat higher income levels who face very high premiums. The beneficiaries of this provision tend to be older adults, to live in regions with high premiums, or to have large families. This brief adds additional detail to earlier published results exploring expected health insurance coverage and spending outcomes if the ARPA subsides are allowed to expire as they are slated to under current law (Buettgens, Banthin, and Green 2022).
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (11 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918471180206676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918471180206676