Health Care Assurance Act of 2004

Bill: 108-s-2570
Sponsor: Sen. Specter, Arlen [R-PA]
Introduced: 2004-06-23 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Administrative fees
Administrative procedure
Agricultural labor
Agriculture and Food
Anesthetics
Appropriations
Associations, institutions, etc.
Business records
Career education
Chambers of commerce
Child health
Churches
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Clergy
Coinsurance
Commerce
Communication in medicine
Community and school
Computers
Congress
Congressional reporting requirements
Consumer education
Continuing education
Cooperative societies
Curricula
Data banks
Department of Health and Human Services
Discrimination in insurance
Discrimination in medical care
Economics and Public Finance
Education
Electronic data interchange
Elementary and secondary education
Emergency Management
Emergency medicine
Employee health benefits
Excise tax
Families
Federal aid to child health services
Federal aid to education
Federal aid to health facilities
Federal aid to research
Finance and Financial Sector
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Government publicity
Government trust funds
Grants-in-aid
Health care fraud
Health education
Health information systems
Health insurance
Health insurance continuation
Health insurance portability
Health promotion
Higher education
Hospital personnel
Immigrant health
Immigrants
Immigration
Information technology
Insurance premiums
Labor and Employment
Law
Licenses
Living wills
Married people
Maternal health services
Mathematics
Medicaid
Medical economics
Medical education
Medical fees
Medical malpractice
Medical records
Medical research
Medical statistics
Medical technology
Medically uninsured
Medicare
Mentoring
Migrant labor
Nonprofit organizations
Nurse practitioners
Nurses
Nutrition
Parents
Patients' rights
Payroll deductions
Physicians' assistants
Poor children
Pregnant women
Preventive medicine
Professional associations
Public service advertising
Quality of care
Religion
Research grants
Science, Technology, Communications
Scientific education
Seasonal labor
Secondary education
Self-insurance
Small business
Social Welfare
Standards
State laws
Tax penalties
Taxation
Trade associations
Valuation
Welfare eligibility
Women
Women's health
Youth

Summary:
action_date: 2004-06-23
text: 
Health Care Assurance Act of 2004 - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Public Health Service Act to: (1) develop a target actuarial value for standard health care coverage offered by any plan or group or individual health insurance coverage; (2) specify how premiums for health care coverage are to be set; and (3) require health plans and issuers to disclose rating practices.
 
Sets forth provisions governing the operation (including premium setting and enrollment) of qualified small employer purchasing groups, qualified association plans, church plans, multi-employer plans, plans maintained by rural electric cooperatives, and plans maintained by rural telephone cooperatives.
 
Requires small employers to offer, but not contribute to, standard health care coverage.
 
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to impose taxes on the failure of specified health insurance plans to comply with this Act.
 
Sets forth provisions regarding &quot;continuation coverage&quot; (COBRA), including regarding deductibles, terminating coverage, length of coverage, and coverage of dependent children.
 
Amends title XXI (State Children's Health Insurance) (SCHIP) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to: (1) revise the definition of an eligible ''low-income child'' to mean a child whose family income is at or below 233 percent (currently, 200 percent) of the poverty line;
 
 and (2) authorize States to extend SCHIP coverage to include health care assistance for low-income parents and pregnant women.
 
Increases the authorized appropriations for the Account for Medicare Integrity Program.
 
Requires the Secretary to provide for reporting systems, training, education, and a national database to reduce medical errors.
 
Establishes the Trust Fund for Medical Treatment Outcomes Research to be funded using taxes related to health insurance policies.
 
Sets forth provisions regarding information technology, including regarding how the use of such technology can be encouraged.
 
Requires the Secretary to educate the public about health care choices and to develop ways to improve advance directives and living wills.
 
Amends the title XVIII (Medicare) of the SSA to increase the reimbursement rate for physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and clinical nurse specialists.
 
Requires the Secretary to establish programs to recruit high school or college students to careers in general medicine.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2004-06-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2004-06-23
text: Introduced in Senate
action_date: 2004-06-22
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (mislabeled in CR as S.2558:  CR S7183-7189)