Van Drew, Kean Call For ‘Conservative Path’ To Protect ACA Tax Credits

WASHINGTON — After voting this summer for a sweeping bill to slash national health insurance programs for the poor and disabled, two Republican congressmen from New Jersey want Congress to devise a plan to prevent rising medical costs on track to hit the public next year.

For people in New Jersey who have health insurance coverage under the 2010 federal law known as Obamacare, premiums will rise an average of 15.9% in 2026, according to the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance.

Those costs will hit the public next year unless Congress passes and President Donald Trump signs new legislation — an unlikely outcome due to broad Republican opposition on Capitol Hill to extending the subsidies. No bill to do that is on the congressional agenda.

Reps. Jeff Van Drew (R-2nd) and Tom Kean Jr. (R-7th) said federal tax credits for people with Obamacare coverage should not lapse without a “conservative path” as an alternative.

Why is the government shut down? Partly a fight over health care“Allowing these tax credits to lapse without a clear path forward would risk real harm to those we represent,” Van Drew and Kean wrote in an Oct. 21 letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican lawmaker from Louisiana who sets the legislative agenda for the House of Representatives.

“Nevertheless, we must chart a conservative path that protects working families in our districts across the country who rely on these credits,” Van Drew and Kean said in the letter.

The letter does not include a specific proposal, though Van Drew and Kean are both co-sponsors of legislation to extend the subsidies for a year.

In the summer, both Van Drew and Kean voted for an immense federal law projected to remove about 10 million people, and roughly 324,000 in New Jersey, from Medicaid, the federal health insurance system for the low-income and disabled. In the state, Medicaid is administered under the name NJ FamilyCare.

That law is the centerpiece of the second Trump administration’s domestic agenda. Aside from cutting Medicaid, it will also financially help the wealthiest 10% of American households, bringing them an average benefit of $13,600 annually, while removing about $1,200 every year in federal assistance from the poorest 10% of households, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Democrats are using their leverage on Capitol Hill during the ongoing government shutdown — Republicans need votes from Democrats in the Senate to open the government — to press for more Medicaid funding and to extend the Obamacare tax credits.

“That’s a December policy issue,” Johnson said recently when asked about the expiring credits.

Hospital-at-home, telehealth programs on hold amid government shutdownWhile the subsidies run out at the end of the calendar year, patients and insurance companies are making decisions about healthcare now and the enrollment period to pick coverage starts in November.

Without a new federal law, about 454,000 people in New Jersey will pay more, starting in January.

“All of their premiums are going to be increasing,” Laura Waddell, health care program director at New Jersey Citizen Action, an advocacy group, said in a recent interview with NJ Spotlight News.

Extending the Obamacare credits is popular among Democrats, Republicans and independent voters, according to polling from KFF, a nonprofit health policy research, polling and news organization, which found 78% of the public wants Congress to extend the credits.

In their letter, Van Drew and Kean said they’re open to working on extending the tax credits after the government is running.

“The first thing we need to do right now is get the government open. That has to be our focus,” Van Drew said in a statement. “But once that’s done, Congress needs to work on the ACA tax credits right away in a responsible way that keeps healthcare affordable and uses taxpayer dollars wisely.”

A Kean spokesman did not respond to a request for comment from NJ Spotlight News.

Campaign experts view Kean as the only vulnerable Republican in New Jersey up for reelection in 2026.

Other potentially politically vulnerable Republicans, including three in neighboring Pennsylvania – Republicans Brian Fitzpatrick, Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie – and David Valadeo of California, who represents one of the nation’s poorest districts, signed on to the letter.