Title: Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act of 2019
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act of 2019
This bill nullifies the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Health and Human Services guidance titled "State Relief and Empowerment Waivers," published on October 24, 2018. The guidance pertains to Section 1332 waivers (also known as State Innovation Waivers or State Relief and Empowerment Waivers), which allow states to forego certain requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in order to implement experimental plans for health care coverage, as long as the resulting coverage meets certain statutory criteria.
The guidance, which supersedes earlier guidance from 2015, alters agency interpretation of how states may satisfy the statutory criteria for waiver approval. For example, the guidance (1) redefines acceptable coverage under such waivers to include short-term, limited-duration insurance and association health plans; (2) allows the comprehensiveness and affordability of coverage under such waivers to be assessed based on projected availability, rather than enrollment; and (3) allows the level of coverage to be assessed based on the effects over the entire course of the waiver, rather than per year.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 986 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 986

     To provide that certain guidance related to waivers for State 
 innovation under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act shall 
                        have no force or effect.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 6, 2019

Ms. Kuster of New Hampshire (for herself, Mr. Beyer, and Mr. Courtney) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
   Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and 
 Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
   each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To provide that certain guidance related to waivers for State 
 innovation under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act shall 
                        have no force or effect.

    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 ``Protecting Americans with 
Preexisting Conditions Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. PROVIDING THAT CERTAIN GUIDANCE RELATED TO WAIVERS FOR STATE 
              INNOVATION UNDER THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE 
              CARE ACT SHALL HAVE NO FORCE OR EFFECT.

    Beginning April 1, 2019, the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
and the Secretary of the Treasury may not take any action to implement, 
enforce, or otherwise give effect to the guidance entitled ``State 
Relief and Empowerment Waivers'' (83 Fed. Reg. 53575 (October 24, 
2018)), and the Secretaries may not promulgate any substantially 
similar guidance or rule.
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