The Senate this week rejected legislation that would have extended enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits, setting up potential premium increases for millions of Americans when the subsidies expire at the end of this year.The enhanced tax credits, which Congress made more generous a few years ago, currently provide larger subsidies to existing recipients and extend eligibility to middle-income consumers who previously earned too much to qualify for assistance."A few years ago, Congress made those tax credits more generous, both giving people up to a certain income who are already getting tax credits, more generous tax credits and providing middle income consumers who used to make too much tax credits for the first time," said Jessica Altman, executive director of Covered California.Political divide over healthcare subsidiesDemocrats and Republicans remain divided on the issue. While the Democratic bill sought to extend the subsidies, Republicans unveiled a healthcare package Friday that does not include an extension of the expiring enhanced ACA subsidies.The expiration could significantly impact California residents, according to Altman."What that would mean is many, actually most covered California consumers will still receive a tax credit, but a less generous one. And then we do have enrollees, who will see their tax credit eligibility gone altogether if the federal government makes these changes. So these are some pretty big affordability impacts, big increases in what people are really paying for their coverage each month through covered California," Altman said.Kern County residents face coverage changesNearly 2 million Californians currently rely on Covered California for their healthcare, with about 30,000 enrollees from Kern County. The vast majority of Kern County residents close to 28,000 receive tax credits."And so that means there's about 2,000 people in this community who will be impacted in one way or another, whether there are people who will get a less generous tax credit or lose their tax credit if they remain covered through covered California," Altman said.Penalty considerations for uninsuredCalifornians who go without coverage for more than 3 months can face a penalty when filing their taxes. However, Altman noted that many people would still pay less for premiums through Covered California than they would pay in penalties."We will still have a lot of people who will pay less on their premium uncovered California than they would pay if they pay that penalty. And so that's definitely something to think about. But I do also want to share, you can get an exemption from that penalty, particularly if you're facing financial hardship, if your health insurance options are unaffordable to you. So that's something also to explore if you really feel like you don't have coverage because you can't afford it," Altman said."This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy."Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere: Download Our Free App for Apple and Android Sign Up for Our Daily E-mail Newsletter Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Instagram Subscribe to Us on YouTube ...read more read less