TAX BULLETIN – Tax Tips, News, & Updates: Issue No. 4 | Vol No. 2
We at SSCPA Consulting send our best wishes for great health in 2026 to our clients, peers, business partners, colleagues, and your families. During the 2026 tax filing season, we have been “on a ride” with our clients as they have experienced the impact of the major changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) AKA “Obamacare!” The next series of issues No. 4 (2026) will focus on Tax related aspects of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) Act! This volume No. 2 (newsletter) focuses on the major changes to the ACA because of the OBBB Act! It also features some of the tax issues our clients have experienced relating to those changes and our opinion on these issues.
Overview of Healthcare in The United States (U.S.)
The U.S. is the only major industrialized and supposedly modernized global nation without a centralized healthcare system for its citizenry. Yet, healthcare is one of the most expensive costs to families, in the U.S. Thus, insurance is necessary, but also unattainable for most families. Furthermore, healthcare and insurance are politically charged issues, and each of the major political parties in the U.S. use this issue as talking points to gain political advantage. The Republican Party (GOP) favors self/private insurance and does not believe that the Government should control healthcare and or regulate providers of health insurance. The Democratic Party largely espouses that healthcare for all is a “right” and would like to have Medicare for all citizens.
History of The Affordable Care Act Pre OBBBA-HR1
After years of political upheaval and resistance from newly formed political groups such as the “Tea-Party,”
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly referred to as “Obamacare” was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010.
It represented a significant overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system, with the goal of increasing access to affordable health insurance! Without sufficient knowledge of the Act, anecdotally, people would express their love for the tenants of the ACA, but their hatred of Obamacare😊 Since then the Act has experienced more efforts to overturn it. Who can forget that iconic mid-night “thumbs down” from the late Senator John McCain who saved the ACT!
References:
Goals of the ACA – Specifically, the goals were to:
- The ACA provides subsidies to help lower-income individuals and families afford health insurance premiums.
- Expand Medicaid coverage to adults with incomes below 138% of the federal poverty level. Several states (mostly Republican run) opted not to expand Medicare.
- The ACA encourages new healthcare delivery methods to reduce costs and improve quality.
The Impact of the OBBB
The OBBB (recently and informally rebranded by the GOP) as the “Working Families Tax Cut” allowed for sweeping (and very negative) changes to the ACA and its marketplaces, which had already seen a decrease in the number of uninsured families across the U.S. The following are specific changes that have ramifications for taxpayers:
- Premium tax credit restrictions: The law added verification requirements for patients receiving premium tax credits (PTC) including pre-enrollment checks. This essentially ends the automatic re-enrollment for ACA marketplace and makes it harder to maintain coverage, without active participation. Our clients at SSCPA have seen their tax liabilities increase, because they need to repay the PTC and some have lost the benefits of the subsidies!
- Codification of a Trump administration proposed rule: The OBBBA codified the Marketplace “Integrity and Affordability” rules, which allows for stricter eligibility and affordability standards on marketplace plans. This is projected to result in >900,000 more people being ineligible for insurance via the marketplace, by 2034!
- Interaction with enhanced tax credit expiration: The OBBBA does not address the scheduled end of enhanced premium tax credits at the end of 2025. When combined with that expiration, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates >3.1M more people will lose coverage due to the changes in the ACA marketplace!
Other things to note about this controversial Bill are:
- The longest Government Shutdown (2025) was because of the political fight to extend the PTC and subsidies. The GOP refused and the Democrats stood firm. Yet after several weeks, the Democrats caved to the GOP; thus, the GOP won the fight! As a result, millions lost their insurance coverage!
- One of the main tenets of the Bill is that it permanently extends several tax provisions of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)!
- In addition to the tax and insurance policies, the Bill includes significant changes to immigration, energy, healthcare, and so-called “safety net programs” such as Medicaid.
- Projections from the CBO and other independent analysts estimate that Trump’s OBBBA will add between $3.3 and $4.5 trillion to the national debt in the next decade!
Reactions to the Bill and its Ramification on Taxpayers
While SSCPA and other professional tax consultants are still not certain how this will affect taxpayers in the long run, we know it has had major impacts in this year’s tax cycle. Currently, taxpayers are feeling the effects in decreased refunds and increased tax liabilities. Results of independent research and analyses from several organizations have suggested that most of the benefits of this Bill skew toward the wealthy. Kiplinger also reported on the results of their opinion polls on this Bill They conclude that more Americans oppose than support the big bill.
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WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED & LEARNED FROM THIS MONTH’S BULLETIN!
Contact us for more information which is specific to your situation as there are always exceptions to the IRS rules and specific to the states’ rules!
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