In 2021, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. ARPA significantly expanded premium subsidies for individual and family qualified health plans through 2022. In August of 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which will continue ARPA’s enhanced subsidies through 2025. These subsidies come in the form of premium tax credits for eligible consumers.
Do you purchase your own individual or family health insurance plan?
If you answered yes, you might be eligible for premium tax credits to help reduce your premium costs, even if you were previously ineligible based on your income. As a result of ARPA and the IRA, premium tax credits are now available to eligible Vermonters with much higher incomes than before:*
| Who is covered by the plan? | Income threshold in 2022* | Income threshold in 2023* |
|---|---|---|
| Single | $105,770 | $118,740 |
| Couple | $211,540 | $237,481 |
| Parent and Child(ren) | $204,137 | $229,168 |
| Family | $297,215 | $333,660 |
| * Note that the premium tax credits are only available to eligible people who enroll in a plan through Vermont Health Connect and are not available to people who are enrolled directly through Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (BCBSVT) or MVP. As explained below, if you enrolled in your plan directly through BCBSVT or MVP, you can transfer your plan to Vermont Health Connect and receive the premium tax credits. | ||
How do these premium subsidies help Vermonters?
To date, premium subsidies have provided over $30 million to more than 23,000 Vermonters. These funds have helped individuals and families afford their insurance premiums. Furthermore, the tax credit helps protect consumers from premium increases because it gets larger as premiums rise.
The amount people can save as a result of the premium tax credit can be hundreds of dollars each month. For example, in 2022, a single person making $60,000 a year may save $324 each month through Vermont Health Connect, while a family making $100,000 a year may save $1,396 or more each month (more information here).