Nearly one million women of child-bearing age could be uninsured next year if lawmakers let enhancements lapse for a tax credit linked to Obamacare coverage, according to researchers who say the timing is particularly jarring after the fall of Roe v. Wade. Democrats are staring at the possibility of an increasingly stripped-down spending bill with Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate from West Virginia, refusing to back anything for now that includes higher taxes or energy and climate provisions.Along with drug-pricing reforms, one thing the senator still backs is extending the enhancements to what’s called the premium tax credit.
This is a refundable credit that helps households defray premium costs when purchasing their health insurance through the health insurance exchange established under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. When lawmakers passed the American Rescue Plan last year, they temporarily broadened eligibility when waiving the rule saying the credit did not apply to households making more than 400% above the poverty line. That change applied to tax years 2021 and 2022. New research highlights the stakes if Democrats ultimately can’t hash out a deal via a reconciliation bill that bypasses the need to win any Republican votes. If the enhancements expire, 850,000 women between the age of 19 and 44 will be uninsured next year and many of them will be living in states restricting abortion access, according to Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation researchers. As a whole, 13 million people could see their premium payments increase without extensions to the enhanced credit, according to separate research from the …