The Growing Budget Cost of Insurance Subsidies in the Affordable Care Act

“The ACA health insurance subsidies are the most significant expansion of entitlements since the 1960s. In light of the precarious fiscal outlook for the federal government, its cost is a central concern to policymakers and taxpayers alike. When the ACA passed in June 2010, the Congressional Budget Office projected the budget cost between fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2019 to be $462 billion. By June 2012, the cost for these same years had jumped to $574 billion, an increase of nearly 25 percent.”