House Passes Affordable Care Act Update Bill

U.S. House members today voted 234-179 to pass H.R. 1425, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Enhancement Act" bill. At press time, the official vote tally was not yet available. The House live video stream of the vote indicated that two Republicans crossed party lines to vote for the bill, and one Democrat crossed party lines to vote against it. The current version of the bill would provide $212 billion over 10 years to increase Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credit subsidies.

Resources

• A recording of the video of H.R. 1425 floor debate is available here.
• Links to a collection of H.R. 1425 resources, including the final House Rules Committee print of the bill, are available here.
• The Congress.gov tracking page for H.R. 1425 is available here.
• An article about Trump's strategy for replacing the ACA is available here.

The bill would also provide $45 billion over 10 years to help families that can afford employer-provided coverage for a working parent, but not that employer's family coverage, along with subsidies states could use to make individual major medical insurance more affordable. The bill would also change some rules. If passed and enacted as written, it would, for example, bring back the Obama administration's three-month cap on the duration of short-term health insurance policies. The current H.R. 1425 package is an expanded version of a bill introduced by Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn. Craig rose to speak on the floor to speak in favor of the bill. "If health care isn't affordable, it isn't accessible," Craig said. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., rose to speak against the bill. He said it has zero chance of passing in the Senate. "This legislation before us today provides $100 billion in bailouts for insurance companies, at a time when insurance companies are not paying for elective procedures due to COVID," Walden said. This is not the time to give health insurers new subsidies, Walden said. — Read 7 Things to Know About the Big New House ACA Update Package, on ThinkAdvisor. — Connect with ThinkAdvisor Life/Health on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.