I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1348 
To amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to allow individuals 
to opt out of the minimum required health benefits by permitting health 
insurance issuers to offer qualified health plans that offer alternative 
benefits to the minimum essential health benefits otherwise required, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 10, 2015 
Mrs. ELLMERS of North Carolina introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to 
the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently de-
termined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 
to allow individuals to opt out of the minimum required 
health benefits by permitting health insurance issuers 
to offer qualified health plans that offer alternative bene-
fits to the minimum essential health benefits otherwise 
required, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Health Insurance 
Freedom Act of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. PERMITTING HEALTH INSURANCE ISSUERS TO 
OFFER QUALIFIED HEALTH PLANS WITH AL-
TERNATIVE HEALTH BENEFITS SO INDIVID-
UALS CAN OPT OUT OF MINIMUM ESSENTIAL 
HEALTH BENEFITS. 
Section 1301 of the Patient Protection and Afford-
able Care Act (42 U.S.C. 18021) is amended— 
(1) in subsection (a)(1)(B), by inserting ‘‘sub-
ject to paragraph (3),’’ after ‘‘(B)’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph: 
‘‘(3) PERMITTING ALTERNATIVE BENEFITS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding sub-
section (a)(1)(B) or any other provision of this 
Act, a health insurance issuer may offer, both 
through an Exchange and outside of an Ex-
change, health insurance coverage that— 
‘‘(i) provides the essential health bene-
fits package described in subsection (a) of 
section 1302, other than the minimum 
benefits required under subsection (b) of 
such section and the level of coverage re-
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quired under subsection (c) of such sec-
tion; and 
‘‘(ii) meets such Federal and State 
benefit requirements as otherwise applied 
as of October 1, 2013, in the State in 
which the coverage is offered. 
‘‘(B) TREATMENT.— 
‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—Except as pro-
vided in paragraph (2), health insurance 
coverage that is offered under paragraph 
(1) shall be treated as a qualified health 
plan for purposes of this Act (and the 
amendments made by this Act), including 
constituting minimum essential coverage 
for purposes of section 5000A(f)(1) of the 
Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 
‘‘(ii) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR SUBSIDIES; 
NOT
TREATED
AS
A
BRONZE, SILVER, 
GOLD, OR PLATINUM PLAN.—Such health 
insurance coverage shall not— 
‘‘(I) be treated as a qualified 
health plan for purposes of applying 
section 36B of the Internal Revenue 
Code of 1986 and section 1402 of this 
Act; and 
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‘‘(II) be treated as a bronze, sil-
ver, gold, or platinum plan or be 
taken into account in applying section 
36B(b)(3)(B) of such Code.’’. 
Æ 
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