ICYMI: Boyle and Evans Urge Swift Senate Passage of Cost-Saving Health Care Tax Credits

PHILADELPHIA, PA - On Monday, Congressman Brendan F. Boyle (PA-02), Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, and Congressman Dwight Evans (PA-03), celebrated House passage of legislationextending recently-expired Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits for three years. Republican leadership was forced to bring the bill to the floor last week following a discharge petition that Boyle and Evans helped champion.

Now that the bill has passed the House with bipartisan support, Boyle and Evans called on the Senate - particularly Senators McCormick and Fetterman - to move quickly to send the bill to the President's desk.

"These credits are absolutely vital to making the system work, not just here in Pennsylvania, but throughout the United States. Every single health care provider is going to be impacted by these cuts, meaning those providers will have to find other ways to make up that revenue," said Ranking Member Boyle. "I am urging both Pennsylvania Senators and indeed all 100 Senators to follow the lead of the House of Representatives and pass this clean extension of the Obamacare tax credits. Let's ensure that we save the health care coverage of millions and millions of Americans. Let's ensure that hospitals like Temple University aren't faced with making painful decisions."

"The first thing I'd like to do is thank Congressman Boyle, and I also want to thank Temple for hosting us. Temple Hospital is on the front line of health care," said Congressman Dwight Evans. "We want our hospitals to stay open. It is in everyone's interest to make sure that 500,000 Pennsylvanians do not lose their coverage. They should not have to choose between rent and groceries. We need to understand the urgency of this, and we need to do it now."

At Temple University Hospital, Boyle and Evans emphasized what is at stake for Pennsylvania families without these tax credits. Pennie, Pennsylvania's ACA exchange, estimates that hundreds of thousands of families in Pennsylvania will face average premium increases of 102 percent if these tax credits are not extended.

"I want to thank Congressmen Boyle and Evans for a tireless commitment to preserving access to care, not only here in our community, but across the country," said Temple University Health System President and CEO Abhi Rastogi. "Their leadership has made a meaningful difference for our patients and our teams that care for our patients every single day. We operate on very thin margins, and reductions in these programs will place a significant stress on our ability to meet our community needs. These are going to be uninsured patients, visiting our emergency departments, delaying their care, limiting their access to preventive medication, and all of that is going to lead to worse outcomes, and it's going to increase the cost for everyone."

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, a three-year extension of the enhanced ACA premium tax credits would increase the number of Americans with health insurance by 4 million people in 2028. District-by-district data on the consequences of the Republican health care crisis can be found on Ranking Member Boyle's Budget Committee website here.

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