Golden, Turner Press Congressional Negotiators To Make Health Coverage Tax Credit Permanent

WASHINGTON — Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02), Congressman Mike Turner (OH-10) and Congressman Tim Ryan (OH-13) sent a bipartisan letter to Ways & Means Committee leaders urging them to permanently extend the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC) in the America COMPETES Act as they negotiate the final version of the bill with the Senate. A Golden-backed provision to make the program permanent was included in the House-passed version of the legislation. 

The HCTC helps dozens of Maine retirees, including retired millworkers from Twin Rivers Paper in Madawaska, afford health insurance. Golden secured one-year extensions of the HCTC for 2020 and 2021, but the credit lapsed at the end of 2021 as congressional leaders’ negotiations over omnibus appropriations and tax legislation stalled.

“Retirees in Madawaska, and the many other Americans who have relied on the Health Coverage Tax Credit, have been left without affordable health insurance since Congress allowed the program to expire at the beginning of the year,” said Golden. “These people worked hard their whole lives and they don’t deserve the uncertainty and stress of relying on a program that could expire every year or two.  That’s why we passed a permanent solution in the House as part of the America COMPETES Act. Congressman Turner, Ryan, and I are urging our House committee leaders to fight for this provision as they negotiate with the Senate and make the HCTC permanent once and for all.”

The HCTC provides refundable tax credits to cover more than 70% of the cost of health insurance premiums for two kinds of workers: those who have been certified to have lost their jobs due to outsourcing, and eligible retirees whose pensions have been taken over by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation as a result of the financial instability of a previous employer. 

“This program has been reauthorized seven times since its inception in 2002, benefitting thousands of American workers and their families,” wrote the lawmakers. “Extending the HCTC is also the disposition of our bipartisan legislation, H.R. 6339, the Health Coverage Tax Credit Reauthorization Act of 2021, which reauthorizes the tax credit through 2025. We again urge you to retain section 101601 of the House-passed America COMPETES Act and permanently extend this integral tax credit."

Golden has been a long-time advocate for the HCTC. The need for HCTC extension was first brought to Golden’s attention by Twin Rivers Paper Mill workers when the Congressman met with them in Madawaska in February 2019. The Congressman then helped lead the bipartisan Health Coverage Tax Credit Reauthorization Act of 2019 with Republican Congressman Mike Turner (OH-10), and he won one-year extensions of the HCTC for 2020 and 2021. He and Turner reintroduced bipartisan Health Coverage Tax Credit Reauthorization of 2021 earlier this year. 

The letter text can be found here.

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