As Congress races to determine whether millions of Americans will face higher health insurance premiums in January, a network of Koch-aligned advocacy groups is quietly driving Republican opposition to extending the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsidies through coordinated polls, letters, and pressure campaigns.
The Senate on Thursday failed to advance competing legislative proposals that would have either extended the enhanced premium tax credits or replaced them with Health Savings Account-style funding, leaving the subsidies on track to expire at the end of the year, potentially driving up costs for more than 20 million enrollees.
In recent weeks, the Charles Koch-founded Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and The Libre Initiative have waged a sustained campaign to steer Republican lawmakers away from the subsidy extension and toward Health Savings Accounts, the groups’ preferred alternative. On Dec. 11, AFP released a poll indicating voter support for Health Savings Accounts, while Libre Initiative issued a letter on the same day urging U.S. senators to oppose the tax credits. In the past month, both groups have repeatedly targeted the subsidies with blog posts, press releases, and vote alerts. Examples include a Dec. 9 post by AFP’s Dean Clancy criticizing the credits, a Dec. 10 AFP vote-scoring alert urging opposition, and a Libre blog post describing the measure as providing “little” for Latino families.
AFP’s lobbying disclosures show that the group, which spent more than $1.1 million on federal lobbying in the first nine months of 2025, has been meeting with members of Congress to push them on “supporting the expiration of Affordable Care Act premium tax credits.” Meta’s ad archive also shows that AFP has been spending tens of thousands on Facebook ads calling for the subsidies to expire.
They are joined by another Koch‑funded group, the Paragon Health Institute, that has also been pushing Republican lawmakers on the issue, arguing in policy briefs that the enhanced subsidies create market distortions and inefficiencies and should be allowed to lapse. Paragon describes itself as a health policy research institute that evaluates government programs and develops policy reforms across public health, private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid. Paragon’s president, Brian Blase, previously served as a policy advisor in the first Trump White House, and tax filings show the group has received at least $1.9 million in support from Stand Together Trust, the Koch network’s philanthropic arm.
The outsized influence of Koch-aligned political networks remains a central force in contemporary Republican politics, even as some MAGA figures publicly disparage Koch and his groups. Americans for Prosperity Action, the electoral arm of the Koch network, spent tens of millions of dollars in the last election cycle supporting Republican Senate candidates in key battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan, and Montana. Federal Election Commission records show that AFP Action’s total independent expenditures on federal contests exceeded $130 million, making it one of the largest outside political spenders alongside party committees themselves. Much of its funding has come directly from organizations controlled by billionaire Charles Koch and Koch Industries.
