(Sept. 25, 2025) - Throughout the year, the Kansas Hospital Association and our members have advocated with our congressional delegation on the need to extend the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits before they expire on Dec. 31, 2025. As conversations heat up in Washington on potential negotiations to extend the tax credits, below are key points on the impact of the EPTCs for Kansas that we encourage you to use in meetings with members of Congress and community members.
- Without Congressional action, the EPTCs will expire Dec. 31, 2025.
- As of 2024, approximately 160,000 Kansans benefit from the EPTCs by lowering their monthly insurance premiums. EPTCs have been a key driver in reducing the number of uninsured patients across Kansas and the nation over the last several years.
- If the EPTCs expire, the average Marketplace enrollee in Kansas will see estimated premium increases of $700 annually (approximately 77 percent increase) adding substantial strain to family budgets.
- A Kansas family of four would experience premium hikes of over $2,500 annually.
- A 60-year-old couple’s premiums would rise by over $18,000.
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas will likely increase rates by four to six percent solely attributable to the expiring EPTCs.
- The Trump Administration has recently announced plans to expand eligibility for catastrophic plans in an attempt to create a cushion for folks who find themselves unable to afford increased premiums.
- Even if some Kansans disrupted by the changing insurance market maintain insurance “coverage” on a catastrophic plan, the high-deductible nature of those plans will regardless mean that Kansas hospitals are likely to still see an increase in uncompensated care.
- The potential expiration of EPTCs, in conjunction with other factors, means Kansas insurers are proposing the largest premium increase since 2018, raising premiums by 20 percent on average.
- The Kaiser Family Foundation projects these unsustainable increases will result in between 41,000 and 68,000 Kansans losing their insurance coverage.
- To ensure Kansans can maintain access to preventive care services, which makes America healthy and lowers health care costs throughout the system, and to prevent hospitals from shouldering additional uncompensated care and bad debt at a time when many already face financial headwinds, it is important for Congress to renew the EPTCs beyond Dec. 31, 2025.
Please see this fact sheet from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas as they also weigh in on this issue.
This week we are sharing this letter with the Kansas Congressional Delegation to further express the importance of these credits on Kansans and Kansas hospitals.