In January 2026, Mike Collins voted against extending the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, including against H.R. 1834, a three-year extension that passed the House over his vote and died in the Senate. In Georgia's marketplace, Georgia Access, enrollment then fell 37%, from 1.5 million people in January 2025 to 950,000 in April 2026.
Collins had also voted for the 2025 law that left the credits to expire and that, from 2028, effectively ends auto-renewals of marketplace coverage, and in November 2025 he agreed with a post calling the credits a wealth transfer system.
What the Expired Premium Tax Credits Mike Collins Voted Against Extending Have Cost Georgia
- Enrollment drop. Enrollment in Georgia's marketplace fell by more than a third after the credits expired: The 37% enrollment drop, from 1.5 million Georgians in January 2025 to 950,000 as of April 17, 2026 is the largest since the marketplace opened in 2014, according to state insurance data obtained by The Current GA and the Georgia Recorder. Many of those who left had been automatically re-enrolled and then failed to make their first premium payments.
- Premiums. The Georgia Health Initiative projected that without the credits, average premium payments in Georgia would more than double, from an average of $69 per month this year to $148 per month in 2026, and For some Georgians, the cost of premiums more than tripled; people earning above about $64,000 a year, for a single person, no longer get any federal assistance and must pay the full market price.
- Who relied on the credits. Before the credits expired, 96% of enrollees use advanced premium tax credits in Georgia, the Georgia Recorder reported, and nationally More than a quarter of farmers and beauticians were insured through the ACA marketplace, according to KFF.
- Georgia's 10th District. In Collins's own district, the Center for American Progress projects 36,000 more uninsured people in Georgia's 10th District in 2034, counting the 2025 law and the expired credits together; statewide, KFF projects 500,000 more uninsured Georgians.
- Hospitals and clinics. Georgia's health sector was expected to lose more than $3.5 billion this year as a result of the expiring subsidies, according to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Urban Institute study, among the three largest losses of any state.
Mike Collins's Votes and Statements on the ACA Premium Tax Credits
- Collins Voted Three Times Against Extending the Premium Tax Credits, in January 2026. On January 7, 2026, Mike Collins voted against the discharge motion that forced a House vote on a three-year extension of the enhanced premium tax credits, and on January 8 he voted against the rule for the bill and voted no on H.R. 1834, the extension, which passed 230 to 196 when 17 House Republicans joined with Democrats. The Senate never took it up: the bill was read the second time and placed on the calendar. The credits had expired on December 31, 2025, and in 2026 premium payments from enrollees increased by an average of 58%, from $113 to $178 a month nationwide, KFF found; in Georgia, which runs its own marketplace, Georgia Access, enrollment fell 37%.
- Collins Voted for the 2025 Law That Ends Automatic Re-Enrollment for Marketplace Coverage. On July 3, 2025, Collins voted for final passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, after voting for the House version, which passed 215 to 214, so it could not have passed without his vote. The law did not extend the enhanced credits, and from 2028 it requires enrollees to verify their eligibility before getting help with premiums, so that this provision effectively ends auto-renewals, according to KFF. In Georgia, More than two-thirds of current enrollees were automatically enrolled into the same or similar plan for 2026, WABE reported in December 2025, the group whose coverage depends on renewing without new paperwork.
- Collins Agreed the Credits Were a "Wealth Transfer," Seven Weeks Before They Expired, in November 2025. On November 8, 2025, as Congress debated whether to extend the enhanced credits, Collins posted "Exactly." in reply to a post by White House aide James Blair calling them a massive wealth transfer system that takes money from American taxpayers and gives it to insurance companies. In December 2025 he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he wanted reforms, "not endless subsidies to the largest insurance companies on the globe," PolitiFact reported. In a January 2026 KFF poll, 67% of the public said Congress did the wrong thing by not extending the credits.
Frequently Asked Questions About Mike Collins on Georgia ACA premiums
What is Mike Collins's record on Affordable Care Act premiums under Trump?
Mike Collins voted three times in January 2026 against extending the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, including against H.R. 1834, the three-year extension that passed the House and died in the Senate. In November 2025 he agreed with a post calling the credits a wealth transfer. In Georgia, marketplace enrollment fell from 1.5 million in January 2025 to 950,000 in April 2026.
How did Mike Collins vote on extending the ACA tax credits?
Mike Collins voted no on every House vote to extend the enhanced credits in January 2026: the discharge motion on January 7, the rule on January 8 and the extension itself, H.R. 1834, which passed anyway with the votes of 17 House Republicans and Democrats. It died in the Senate, and the credits stayed expired.
Why did so many Georgians lose ACA coverage in 2026?
Many of the Georgians who lost marketplace coverage in 2026 had been re-enrolled automatically and then failed to make their first premium payments once the higher bills arrived: the enhanced credits had expired at the end of 2025, and the House-passed extension that Mike Collins voted against died in the Senate. Georgia's enrollment drop was among the steepest in the country, and the president of the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals said, I don’t know what we’re going to do, honestly.
Last updated: 2026-10-25