Stopping power calculations of fast ions penetrating a hydrogen plasma target in local thermodynamic equilibrium at arbitrary temperatures are performed. Excited state contributions to the energy loss are included in the framework of the Bethe formalism. Average ionization potentials for the excited ions are given in a quasiclassical approximation. It is shown that the net effect is an enhancement of the stopping power compared to the energy loss when assuming all atoms to be in their ground state.