Title: Family Coverage Act
Policy area: Taxation

Summary:
Family Coverage Act
This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to modify the requirements for determining the affordability of employer-sponsored minimum essential health coverage that is required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
(Under current law, the coverage is unaffordable, and an employee may be eligible for premium assistance tax credits, if the employee's required contribution for an individual plan exceeds 9.5% of household income, adjusted for inflation after 2014.) The bill specifies that, with respect to an employee's family members who are eligible to enroll in the plan, affordability must be determined using the cost of family coverage rather than individual coverage to expand the eligibility of families for premium assistance tax credits.
This bill also expresses the sense of Congress that the Departments of Health and Human Service and the Treasury have the administrative authority, within their respective jurisdictions, to apply the affordability provision of PPACA so as to expand access to affordable health insurance coverage for working families without further legislation.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2132 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2132

   To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to ensure that working 
     families have access to affordable health insurance coverage.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 15, 2017

  Mr. Franken (for himself, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Leahy, Ms. Heitkamp, Mr. 
 Coons, Mr. Brown, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Udall, Mr. Booker, Mr. Casey, Mr. 
   Merkley, Mrs. Shaheen, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. King, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. 
   Heinrich, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Sanders, and Mr. Markey) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                          Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to ensure that working 
     families have access to affordable health insurance coverage.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Family Coverage Act''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    Notwithstanding the amendments made by section 3, it is the sense 
of Congress that the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the 
Secretary of the Treasury, within their respective jurisdictions, have 
the administrative authority necessary to apply the affordability 
provision in section 36B of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 in such a 
manner as to expand access to affordable health insurance coverage for 
working families without further legislation.

SEC. 3. CLARIFICATION REGARDING DETERMINATION OF AFFORDABILITY OF 
              EMPLOYER-SPONSORED MINIMUM ESSENTIAL COVERAGE.

    (a) In General.--Clause (i) of section 36B(c)(2)(C) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows:
                            ``(i) Coverage must be affordable.--
                                    ``(I) In general.--Except as 
                                provided in clause (iii), an individual 
                                shall not be treated as eligible for 
                                minimum essential coverage if such 
                                coverage consists of an eligible 
                                employer-sponsored plan (as defined in 
                                section 5000A(f)(2)) and the required 
                                contribution with respect to the plan 
                                exceeds 9.56 percent of the applicable 
                                taxpayer's household income.
                                    ``(II) Required contribution with 
                                respect to employee.--In the case of 
                                the employee eligible to enroll in the 
                                plan, the required contribution for 
                                purposes of subclause (I) is the 
                                employee's required contribution 
                                (within the meaning of section 
                                5000A(e)(1)(B)(i)) with respect to the 
                                plan.
                                    ``(III) Required contribution with 
                                respect to family members.--In the case 
                                of an individual who is eligible to 
                                enroll in the plan by reason of a 
                                relationship the individual bears to 
                                the employee, the required contribution 
                                for purposes of subclause (I) is the 
                                employee's required contribution 
                                (within the meaning of section 
                                5000A(e)(1)(B)(i), determined by 
                                substituting `family' for `self-only') 
                                with respect to the plan.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendments.--
            (1) Clause (ii) of section 36B(c)(2)(C) of the Internal 
        Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the 
        following: ``This clause shall also apply to an individual who 
        is eligible to enroll in the plan by reason of a relationship 
        the individual bears to the employee.''.
            (2) Clause (iii) of section 36B(c)(2)(C) of such Code is 
        amended by striking ``the last sentence of clause (i)'' and 
        inserting ``clause (i)(III)''.
            (3) Clause (iv) of section 36B(c)(2)(C) of such Code is 
        amended by striking ``clause (i)(II)'' and inserting ``clause 
        (i)(I)''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017.
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