Reed & Whitehouse Team Up with Protect Our Healthcare Coalition to Urge U.S. Senate to Extend ACA Tax Credits & Lower Health Care Costs for RIers

WARWICK, RI - Over 48,000 Rhode Islanders depend on HealthSource RI for health insurance coverage to protect themselves and their families. Those Rhode Islanders are facing huge increases in their health insurance premiums because of Republican inaction on extending critical Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced tax credits that expired on January 1, 2026.

As a result, about 13,000 are expected to go without health insurance altogether which will strain the state's health care system and hike up costs for others.

U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse today joined leading advocates from the Protect Our Healthcare Coalition to call on Congress to extend the ACA tax credits and stop health care premiums from skyrocketing for Rhode Island families. The group noted that the issue impacting thousands of Rhode Islanders is also taking its toll nationwide as obstruction by President Trump and Congressional Republican leaders is making health coverage more expensive for millions of Americans.

"President Trump and Republican leaders in Congress are seemingly hell-bent on upending our nation's health care system. Together, they have slashed $1 trillion from Medicaid, rejected basic medical knowledge on vaccines, and halted life-saving medical research to develop cures and treatments for debilitating diseases, all while making health insurance more expensive and putting basic care further out of reach for millions of Americans," said Senator Reed. "As so many of our advocates pointed out today - the estimated 13,000 Rhode Islanders who will be priced out of their insurance through HealthSourceRI this year represent only the tip of the iceberg. We need urgent action to help these struggling families and bolster our state's health care system. Congress must use every tool at our disposal to lower health care costs for all Americans, strengthen care, and ensure every American can have the peace of mind of being insured and having access to affordable health care when they need it.

"Republicans in Congress are feeling the heat of millions of Americans who are about to see their health care costs explode because of their inaction," said Senator Whitehouse. "We now have a real opportunity to extend the ACA tax credits and save thousands of Rhode Islanders from a looming crisis. I applaud the Protect Our Healthcare Coalition and state leaders for lessening the blow on Rhode Island families while we keep up the pressure in Washington."

ACA tax credits scale with income. Without the enhanced subsidies for lower- and middle-income individuals, enrollees are facing an average of 101 percent increases for their health premiums while some are seeing their costs rise by over 500 percent. Rhode Island's economy stands to lose nearly $60 million in federal health subsidies, according to the Protect Our Healthcare Coalition, along with tens of millions of dollars in federal funding that would have flowed to local health care providers if Republicans had joined Democrats to extend the enhanced ACA tax credits.

"The Affordable Care Act is working in Rhode Island, but the promise of affordable and meaningful coverage for all is under threat," said Shamus Durac, Senior Attorney and Health Policy Analyst with RIPIN and co-chair of the Protect Our Healthcare Coalition. "Because of the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits, the more than 40,000 Rhode Islanders who rely on HealthSource RI for their coverage face astronomical out-of-pocket increases for their monthly premiums. On average, these enrollees will see their monthly costs double, and many low- and moderate-income people see even higher increases, sometimes facing bills that have gone up by hundreds of dollars a month. Without immediate action, we know that many of our friends, family members, and neighbors risk losing the coverage they need to be able to go to the doctor, get their prescriptions, and stay healthy. Fortunately, the House of Representatives has passed a clean extension of the enhanced premium tax credits, supported by Representatives from both parties, and we're thankful that Senators Reed and Whitehouse are calling on the Senate to do the same and protect Rhode Islanders' health coverage."

"We have just a few weeks left to go in Open Enrollment, and what we're seeing and hearing from our customers is fear about their ability to stay covered, uncertainty in hard choices about paying significantly higher premiums, and a tendency to choose less comprehensive levels of coverage now that the enhanced tax credits have expired," said HealthSource RI Director Lindsay Lang. "We've been anticipating this for months, and now that it is playing out, the impact to our residents and our healthcare system will be felt almost immediately. A reversal in our hard-fought uninsured rate is not a future we want for Rhode Islanders and it is not a future our healthcare system can sustain."

"Affordable health care is the cornerstone of health equity and community stability. At Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island (Neighborhood), we believe no one should ever have to choose between their health and financial security. Yet without the extension of enhanced premium tax credits, that is the reality many Rhode Islanders face," said Elizabeth McClaine, Neighborhood's Vice President of Commercial and Medicaid Products. "Many Rhode Islanders rely on these credits as a lifeline to coverage, and without them, families confront the unthinkable choice of going without care. This is why Neighborhood proudly stands with Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse in urging the U.S. Senate to act now to protect access to affordable and equitable health care for all. Affordable health care should never be out of reach."

On January 8, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 230-196 for a bipartisan bill to extend ACA premium tax credits by three years. Seventeen House Republicans voted with Democrats after a discharge petition allowed House lawmakers to bypass Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) control of the legislative voting agenda.

Building on this momentum, Senators Reed and Whitehouse travelled back to the nation's capital following the event to continue advocating for an immediate vote in the U.S. Senate to pass a clean, three-year extension of the enhanced ACA tax credits.

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