Congress must extend the ACA subsidies or expect a crisis in N.J.

By Shamik Bhat and Soumitra S. Bhuyan

As Washington grinds through the longest shutdown in history, New Jersey families are monitoring an upcoming crisis at home: upcoming expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies on New Jersey’s marketplace threatens to raise healthcare costs for hundreds of thousands.

These subsidies — delivered as premium tax credits (PTCs) based on income — have been a consequential health policy success.

First made available in 2014 through the Health Insurance Marketplace established by Affordable Care Act of 2010 , they lower premiums and cap them based on a household’s income, expanding coverage to millions of middle-income Americans who would otherwise remain uninsured. Credits were expanded in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in 2021 and