End the Biden-era COVID Subsidies

Pennsylvanians are not stranger to high costs of living, largely in part to our burdensome regulatory environment. Every day, people across the commonwealth make hard choices to make ends meet. When Washington asks for more of our tax dollars, especially under the banner of “health care relief”, we should ask if this is helping real people or helping pad insurance companies’ pockets.

That brings us to the temporary, expanded premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Introduced as pandemic-era tax credits, they were always meant to be a short-term response to a public crisis. Now that Washington Democrats are pushing to make them a permanent feature, ordinary citizens need to ask themselves: do these subsidies still make sense?

These are not just subsidies—they’re a guaranteed payout for insurance companies. The “free” health insurance made available for households under 150 percent of the poverty level does nothing but invite abuse.

In fact, data indicate millions of enrollees never even use their coverage. Some are likely enrolled elsewhere—perhaps in employer-sponsored plans or government programs like Medicaid—meaning taxpayers pay premiums for duplicate or “phantom” policies.

That’s not a safety net. It’s a broken system masquerading as compassion.

The damage spreads beyond misallocated dollars: it tilts policy against working Americans—especially those with employer-based insurance—giving employers indirect incentives to drop coverage. It warps the market, undermining competition at the local level. When insurance is labeled “free,” it suppresses real market signals such as cost, quality, and choice.

We should not treat this as a political fight between parties. We should treat it as a fight for fiscal responsibility and to prevent costly waste, fraud, and abuse.

Here’s the bottom line: the pandemic is over. The emergency that justified these expanded subsidies is gone. These subsidies are expensive, structurally flawed, and open the door to waste, duplication, and poor incentives. Permanent subsidies favor big insurance, not families, workers, or communities.

Instead of pouring more taxpayer dollars into a broken system, citizen activists should push for real, patient-centered reforms, such as direct primary care or health savings accounts.

We must remind our lawmakers that health care is not a political toy. It’s one of the most fundamental things a person can need. Funding decisions should reflect that seriousness, not satisfy insurance companies at the expense of taxpayers.

If you care about ending the broken system of fraud and abuse, it’s time to let the expanded subsidies expire. Let’s build a system focused on patients, not special interests.

Head to AFPPennsylvania.com to learn how you can join us in the fight to put an end to these costly Biden-era subsidies.

This is Emily Greene Brey, State Director with Americans for Prosperity-PA.