Biden’s COVID Bonuses Prioritize Insurance Companies Over Consumers

Majority Leader | Research | The Leader Board | THE NEWSR...Skip to primary navigation Skip to content×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNE×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUFacebookXInstagramFacebookXInstagramVisit Leader Thune's South Dakota Site Here THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUHomeTHE NEWSROOMThe Leader Board10.30.25Biden’s COVID Bonuses Prioritize Insurance Companies Over ConsumersFor Years, Democrats’ Health Care Policies Have Created a Windfall to Health Insurance Companies While Incentivizing Higher Costs and Passing the Bill to Taxpayers (Click here to download)SINCE DEMOCRATS CREATED OBAMACARE, THE PROGRAM HAS PRIMARILY BENEFITTED INSURANCE COMPANIES WHILE RAISING COSTS FOR CONSUMERS“When Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act of 2010, President Obama and lawmakers made the same claim over and over: The act would make good, affordable health insurance available to people with pre-existing conditions.” (The Wall Street Journal: Op-ed: ObamaCare Turns Out to Be Affordable Only for the Healthy – 9/12/23)“Supporters of Obamacare promised that the legislation would cut family premiums by $2,500. Instead, its mix of mandates and pricing restrictions sharply increased individual market premiums.” (Paragon Health Institute: Holding Firm on the COVID Credits, Subsidizing Unauthorized Immigrants’ Health Care, and a Part D Policy Brief – 10/15/25)Premiums for the average Obamacare enrollee have increased 221% between 2013 and 2025. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Individual Market Premium Changes: 2013 – 2017 – 5/23/17; Paragon Health Institute: Almost Entire Obamacare Premium Increases Paid for By Taxpayers – accessed 10/30/25)“The actual result has been the opposite. ObamaCare makes health insurance as good as possible for the healthy and as bad as possible for the sick.” (The Wall Street Journal: Op-ed: ObamaCare Turns Out to Be Affordable Only for the Healthy – 9/12/23)“Healthy people tend to buy health plans based on premium alone and ignore all other features. So when premiums are set so low that the enrollee pays nothing, the plan will attract enrollees who will cost almost nothing. But they will generate government subsidies worth thousands of dollars to large insurance companies.” (The Wall Street Journal: Op-ed: ObamaCare Turns Out to Be Affordable Only for the Healthy – 9/12/23)“By contrast, sick enrollees are potentially financial losers. High deductibles and narrow provider networks deter the sick, who are guided by these plan features.” (The Wall Street Journal: Op-ed: ObamaCare Turns Out to Be Affordable Only for the Healthy – 9/12/23)“If you wonder why ObamaCare was designed this way, consider that it wasn’t designed by Mr. Obama or by Democratic lawmakers. It was designed by special interests. ObamaCare has been pouring about $60 billion a year in new money into the healthcare system. All that spending is lining the pockets of insurance companies, hospitals and some doctors—although it doesn’t appear that there has been any overall increase in the amount of healthcare being delivered.” (The Wall Street Journal: Op-ed: ObamaCare Turns Out to Be Affordable Only for the Healthy – 9/12/23)HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES WANT TO KEEP THE TAXPAYER-FUNDED CHECKS FLOWING“Obamacare keeps raising costs for health insurance, and Democrats now insist that everyone, regardless of income, should be eligible for larger subsidies than Obama signed.” (National Review: The Obamacare Ratchet Effect – 10/3/25)“The change was a response to a widespread concern that the Affordable Care Act had not, in fact, made insurance affordable enough for many Americans.” (The New York Times: Democrats’ Bill Would Go Far Toward ‘Patching the Holes’ in Health Coverage – 12/1/21)When the COVID bonuses were first passed in 2021, “top lobbying groups representing insurers, hospitals and doctors have all endorsed the [Biden COVID bonuses], which would pump more money into the system without asking them to cut costs or pay new taxes.” (NBC News: Obamacare would get a big (and quiet) overhaul in the Covid relief bill – 3/2/21)“One group that is very happy about this state of affairs is health insurance companies, who are the recipients of the subsidies. ‘About half of all health care spending and the majority of health insurer revenue now comes directly from the government,’ according to analysis from the Paragon Health Institute.” (National Review: The Obamacare Ratchet Effect – 10/3/25)“Naturally, insurers are lobbying hard to extend the ‘temporary’ credits that have already been extended once, for years beyond the Covid emergency they were supposed to address.” (National Review: The Obamacare Ratchet Effect – 10/3/25)“As the Economic Policy Innovation Center has explained, Obamacare mandates health insurance plans at expensive levels of benefits, so the government has to subsidize them to make them affordable. Those subsidies go to insurers, who in millions of instances get to keep the entire thing because their customers never make a claim. Insurers have little reason to keep costs down, since their customers aren’t price-sensitive, which then fuels even more calls for even more subsidies.” (National Review: The Obamacare Ratchet Effect – 10/3/25)THE RESULT OF OBAMACARE AND BIDEN’S COVID BONUSES HAS BEEN MASSIVE FEDERAL PAYOUTS TO INSURERS AND INCREASED WASTE, FRAUD, AND ABUSE“Biden’s COVID credits—pandemic-era subsidy add-ons that made many exchange plans ‘free’—drove massive improper enrollment. Paragon estimates 6.4 million people were placed in the fully subsidized 100 to 150 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) category after the 2025 open enrollment period, despite not having that income.” (Paragon Health Institute: Don’t Believe AHIP – Improper and Phantom Obamacare Enrollees Are Both Major Problems – 8/20/25)“Newly released Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data shows that 35 percent of individual market enrollees had zero claims in 2024. This percentage contrasts with about 15 percent of privately insured non-elderly adults who typically have no claims in a year.” (Paragon Health Institute: Don’t Believe AHIP – Improper and Phantom Obamacare Enrollees Are Both Major Problems – 8/20/25)“Roughly 40 percent of enrollees with a fully subsidized, extremely low cost-sharing plan filed no claims in 2024—double the percentage from three years earlier.” (Paragon Health Institute: Don’t Believe AHIP – Improper and Phantom Obamacare Enrollees Are Both Major Problems – 8/20/25)“This improper enrollment was fueled by fraud schemes run through enrollment intermediaries, enriching insurers that pocketed subsidies for people who never used their plan.” (Paragon Health Institute: Don’t Believe AHIP – Improper and Phantom Obamacare Enrollees Are Both Major Problems – 8/20/25)“In the last two sessions of Congress, Democrats had an opportunity to reverse some of the worst aspects of ObamaCare. Instead, they added $30 billion of ‘enhanced subsidies,’ which will make health insurance cheaper for healthy people making as much as several hundred thousand dollars a year.” (The Wall Street Journal: Op-ed: ObamaCare Turns Out to Be Affordable Only for the Healthy – 9/12/23)“In 2024, insurers were likely sent more than $40 billion in subsidies for people who received no health care.” (Paragon Health Institute: Don’t Believe AHIP – Improper and Phantom Obamacare Enrollees Are Both Major Problems – 8/20/25) PrintEmailTweetPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER THUNEFacebookXInstagram