Obamacare is setting taxpayer dollars on fire

The Democrats' Build Back Better bill has risen from the dead. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., who killed the massive spending package last year, is back in conversation with his party's leaders about advancing a slimmeddown version of the measure.

Taxpayers would be better off if Build Back Better died again. The legislation, if passed, would make permanent the wasteful Obamacare subsidies that went into effect in March 2021 under the American Rescue Plan, and that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

The legislation made Obamacare tax credits more generous for those making less than 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $111,000 for a family of four. In addition, it extended subsidies to people making more than four times poverty by capping what they'd have to pay in premiums at 8.5% of income. The cost of these subsidies has far exceeded early estimates. Though the expansion is only scheduled to last until the end of 2022, the Congressional Budget Office originally predicted it would cost $34.2 billion over the agency's 10-year budget window.

But a recent CBO report reveals the expansion will cost $30 billion this year alone -- 50% higher than original projections, per former Trump administration economic advisor Brian Blase. Many of those taxpayer dollars will be funneled to disproportionately wealthy Americans. As Blase has pointed out, couples making $500,000 in some parts of the country are newly eligible for more than $7,000 in exchange subsidies. It's no wonder more than 1 million Americans making over four times the poverty level have enrolled in Obamacare this year.

Forcing taxpayers to continue picking up their health insurance tab will come at an enormous cost. The CBO pegs the cost of a permanent subsidy expansion at $220 billion.

That's senseless. Cementing these ill-targeted subsidies in place would create an apocalypse for taxpayers.

Sally C. Pipes is president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith fellow in Health Care Policy at the Pacific Research Institute. Her latest book is False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All (Encounter 2020). Follow her on Twitter @sallypipes.