(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Colorado Governor Jared Polis was in Colorado Springs on Friday, Sept. 26 to discuss the consequences families and businesses could face if Congress fails to extend the Enhanced Premium Tax Credit (EPTC).
Polis gathered small business owners, insurance experts, and health care leaders for a roundtable to discuss the effects on Americans’ healthcare premiums if Congress does not renew the EPTC by Sept. 30.
The Governor was joined by representatives from the Colorado Division of Insurance, Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Small Business Majority, Connect for Health Colorado, 413 Consulting, and other small businesses and health care providers who depend on the tax credit. Each shared how the expiration of the EPTC would increase costs, reduce coverage, and destabilize health care for working families and employers in El Paso County.
While the credits expire at the end of the year, experts say insurers will have to set premiums and marketplace customers will sign up for next year’s plans within a matter of weeks. Polis said Congress must act now, or people across America will be stuck with high insurance costs in 2026.
“We did take some action in the special session, but this is fundamentally a federal tax credit,” Polis said at the roundtable. “There’s nothing that the state can do to fully replicate this, we need this as a linchpin of what we can build off of. The state, of course, has a contingency plan, but… while it will blunt some of those insurance increases, it will still be very, very high.”
The Colorado Division of Insurance says families in El Paso County who get health coverage through the exchange could see premiums rise by 159% next year if the EPTC expires, with enrollment projected to drop by 27%.