Alaska committee hears push to urge Congress to extend enhanced ACA premium tax credits

Chair Sen. Dan Dunbar opened the hearing and invited testimony on House Joint Resolution 9, which would urge the U.S. Congress to extend enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act that are scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2025. Mikayla Wilson, staff to Representative Mena, summarized data the sponsor provided and said an extension would reduce premiums and protect Alaska’s reinsurance program.

The resolution asks Congress to continue the enhanced premium tax credits that temporarily increased subsidies passed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wilson said enhanced credits made marketplace coverage more affordable for 22,180 Alaskans, saved an average of about $690 per person annually, and that losing the credits would raise annual tax-subsidy losses to more than $287,000,000 in Alaska. She cited figures “from the Division of Insurance” showing example impacts: a single 50-year-old earning $32,918 would see monthly premiums rise from $27 to $129, and a family of four would move from $6.67 a month to $3,333 a month, if enhanced credits expire.

Small-business owners and advocacy groups told the committee the credits matter for entrepreneurship and for people with preexisting conditions. Amber Lee, owner of Amber Lee Strategies, recounted losing employer coverage during a cancer diagnosis and said the ACA’s protections and the enhanced credits allowed her to buy marketplace coverage once she started her own business. Trevor Storrs, president and CEO of Alaska Children’s Trust, and public commenters Loretta Gregory (an elder from Southeast Alaska), Megan Lingle (Juneau, single mother), and Kaye Riley (Juneau) each urged support for HJR 9, saying the credits improve access to specialty care, reduce out‑of‑pocket costs, and help tribal clinics receive reimbursements.

Senators asked Division of Insurance Director Laurie Winghire about Congress’s prospects. Winghire said the credits are widely discussed in Washington and reiterated they are scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2025. She said Alaska’s congressional offices have requested data from the state and that there “seems to be momentum” to extend the credits, but she did not state a congressional outcome.

Sen. Hughes pressed Winghire on how expiration would affect Alaska’s reinsurance program. Winghire said enhanced credits had helped pass through roughly $75,000,000 to support reinsurance funding; that Alaska’s reinsurance program previously reduced year-over-year premium growth from 42% to 7% after its 2017 implementation; and that without the enhanced credits the state would have roughly $25,000,000 remaining for the program in 2026 and would need to lower the program’s limit thereafter unless replacement funding is found. She said she would not ask the state to fill the federal funding gap and that the program’s limit would have to be reevaluated.

Chair Dunbar set an amendment deadline for HJR 9 of Wednesday, May 7 at 5 p.m. and said his intent is to bring the resolution back to committee Thursday, May 8 for further consideration and possible action. No formal committee vote on HJR 9 was conducted at this hearing.

The record includes testimony from stakeholders representing small business, child welfare advocacy, tribal and rural Alaska, and the Division of Insurance, and committee members discussed federal timing, reinsurance funding, and market impacts as they considered next steps.