AJR25 - Health care coverage: enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits.

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Joint Resolution No. 25 Introduced by Assembly Member Bonta January 29, 2026 Relative to enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AJR 25, as introduced, Bonta. Health care coverage: enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. This measure would urge the United States Congress and the President of the United States to immediately restore and extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. Digest Key Fiscal Committee: NO Bill Text WHEREAS, The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has dramatically expanded access to affordable, quality health care across the United States, reducing the uninsured rate and protecting millions of Americans from being denied coverage due to preexisting conditions; and WHEREAS, California has been a national leader in implementing the ACA, through the successful expansion of Medi-Cal and the establishment of Covered California, and achieving a statewide health insurance coverage rate of nearly 95 percent as of 2023–24; and WHEREAS, Medi-Cal currently provides comprehensive health coverage to more than one-third of Californians and more than one-half of all children in the state, as well as seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, pregnant women, and working families, ensuring access to preventive care, mental health services, and life-saving treatment; and WHEREAS, The ACA established federal premium tax credits, which Congress then enhanced beginning in 2021 and continued until their expiration at the end of 2025; and WHEREAS, Enhanced federal premium tax credits significantly reduced health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs for middle- and working-class families, making quality coverage more attainable for people who otherwise could have been priced out of having health care; and WHEREAS, Republicans in Congress allowed the enhanced federal premium tax credits to expire on January 1, 2026, despite clear evidence that these subsidies were lowering costs, expanding access to care, and providing financial security to families struggling with rising costs of living; and WHEREAS, As a result of this expiration, millions of Americans, including approximately 1,700,000 Californians, are now facing steep health insurance premium increases with many families seeing their costs rise by hundreds of dollars or more every month; and WHEREAS, California could lose up to $2.5 billion in premium savings, and up to 400,000 people statewide are at risk of forgoing coverage due to their premium costs doubling and, in some cases, tripling; and WHEREAS, Seniors on fixed incomes, communities of color, families with children, individuals managing chronic illnesses, and small business owners are especially vulnerable to these premium increases and may be forced to drop coverage altogether; and WHEREAS, While California has taken aggressive action to expand and protect coverage, federal inaction threatens to reverse years of progress in reducing the uninsured rate in the state; and WHEREAS, Congressional Republicans repeatedly opposed extending the enhanced ACA subsidies and allowed them to expire, prioritizing partisan ideology over the health, financial stability, and well-being of American families; and WHEREAS, By refusing to extend subsidies, Congressional Republicans have advanced a broader agenda to undermine affordable health care, including proposals to cut federal Medicaid funding, imposing new work requirements that punish middle-class families, blocking reimbursements for clinics that provide reproductive health care, and weakening provider taxes that keep rural hospitals and clinics open; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of California urges the United States Congress and the President of the United States to immediately restore and extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, in order to reverse harmful premium increases, protect access to affordable health care, and ensure that families in California and across the nation are not forced to choose between medical care and basic necessities; and be it further Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, and each Member of the California Congressional Delegation.