House Democratic leaders are planning to use H.R. 987 — an Affordable Care Act (ACA) public exchange marketing funding bill — as a train engine for pulling many other health insurance bills to the House floor.
Members of the House Rules Committee are preparing to meet at 4:30 p.m. today to review an extended version of H.R. 987. Members will also consider 50 proposed amendments.
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The House floor tracking page shows that the H.R. 987 package could come up on the floor later this week.
H.R. 987 — the “Marketing and Outreach Restoration to Empower Health Education Act of 2019″ bill, or the “MORE Health Education Act” — would provide $100 million in funding for ACA public exchange marketing and public education programs.
House leaders have already attached provisions from the following bills to H.R. 987:
- H.R. 938: This would change the approval rules for new generic drugs.
- H.R. 965: This bill would update the rules for letting generic drugs and biosimilars come to market.
- H.R. 1010: This bill would block a new federal regulation that lets the same short-term health insurance coverage stay in place for up to three years. It would bring back the three-month coverage duration limit imposed by federal regulators under the administration of former President Barack Obama.
- H.R. 1385: This bill would provide $200 million that states could use to set up state-based ACA public exchange programs.
- H.R. 1386: This bill would require every state’s exchange program to make at least one of its navigator organizations, or ombudsman programs, a consumer-focused nonprofit group; and prohibit a state from taking into account whether a prospective navigator organization promotes short-term health insurance or association health plans.
- H.R. 1499: This bill would prohibit brand name drug manufacturers from compensating generic drug manufacturers to delay the market entry of a generic drug.
The current version of the H.R. 987 package does not include any provisions related to Democrats’ Medicare for All proposals.