Federal Spending on Obamacare Has DOUBLED Since 2020

We noted this in the HOTLINE several weeks ago with our back of the envelope math. Now, we have validation from Johns Hopkins Professor Ge Bai and TCU Professor Elizabeth Plummer in the WSJ:

Using health insurers’ mandatory filings, our study, published Friday in JAMA Health Forum, shows that the ObamaCare individual market has become a money pit for taxpayers. In 2024 they paid nearly 80% of the premiums for subsidized plans–compared with only 30% in 2014.

Taxpayers paid more than $114 billion directly to insurers in 2024–one-third more after inflation than in 2023, more than double the amount in 2020 (before the enhanced subsidies), and more than six times as much as in 2014. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this acceleration continued in 2025.

The chart below from the JAMA study shows that premiums have exploded in plans that receive subsidies and the increase was entirely at taxpayer expense.  That is the red portion of the chart. But premiums have been flat in unsubsidized plans.

There’s an economic lesson here: if you subsidize something, you get more of it.

https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/hotlines/federal-spending-on-obamacare-has-doubled-since-2020/