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

WASHINGTON — Congressmen Jared Golden (ME-02) and Mike Turner (OH-10) sent a bipartisan letter this week to urge congressional leadership to include a reauthorization of the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC) in any end of year tax extenders legislation. A Golden-backed provision to make the program permanent was included in the House-passed version of America COMPETES Act, but was stripped during conference negotiations with the Senate. Reps. Dan Kildee (MI-05) and Victoria Spartz (IL-05) joined Golden and Turner to send the letter. 

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.

“We represent working people who have been left without affordable health insurance since Congress allowed the program to expire at the beginning of the year,” the lawmakers wrote. “The HCTC provides refundable tax credits to retirees whose pensions have been taken over by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) as a result of their previous employer’s financial instability. It also assists workers who have lost their jobs due to outsourcing, as well as their families. Especially in a time of record inflation and economic uncertainty, these constituents deserve access to affordable health care through this credit.”

The HCTC provides refundable tax credits to cover more than 70 percent 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.

“Since its inception in 2002, this program has been reauthorized seven times  –  providing much-needed benefits to workers in such positions,” the lawmakers continued. “These people worked hard their whole lives and don’t deserve the uncertainty and stress of relying on a program that could expire every year or two. That’s why we must ensure that a permanent reauthorization is included in any end-of-year tax extenders legislation.”

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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