Patients' Health Care Reform Act

Bill: 109-hr-2203
Sponsor: Rep. Shadegg, John B. [R-AZ-3]
Introduced: 2005-05-05 in the House
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Access to health care
Accreditation (Medical care)
Administrative fees
Administrative procedure
Bankruptcy
Case management
Chambers of commerce
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Clergy
Coinsurance
Collective bargaining
Commerce
Communication in medicine
Computer networks
Congress
Congressional reporting requirements
Consumer education
Cost of living adjustments
Costs
Crime and Law Enforcement
Delegation of powers
Department of Health and Human Services
Department of Labor
Disabled
Discrimination in insurance
Discrimination in medical care
Drugs
Economics and Public Finance
Education
Emergency Management
Emergency medicine
Employee health benefits
Federal advisory bodies
Federal preemption
Federal-state relations
Finance and Financial Sector
Financial statements
Fines (Penalties)
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Government trust funds
Grants-in-aid
Health care fraud
Health insurance
Health maintenance organizations
Higher education
Income tax
Indexing (Economic policy)
Injunctions
Insurance agents
Insurance premiums
Internet
Labor and Employment
Labor contracts
Labor unions
Law
Licenses
Managed care
Medical economics
Medical personnel
Medical savings accounts
Medically uninsured
Patient satisfaction
Preferred provider organizations (Medical care)
Preventive medicine
Professional associations
Quality of care
Reinsurance
Religion
Religious education
Sales promotion
Science, Technology, Communications
Small business
State laws
State taxation
Students
Subsidies
Tax credits
Tax exclusion
Tax refunds
Taxation
Trade associations
Trusts and trustees
User charges

Summary:
action_date: 2005-05-05
text: 
Patients' Health Care Reform Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to provide for the establishment and governance of : (1) HealthMarts, which are nonprofit organizations that offer health benefits coverage to employers, employees, and individuals through contracts with health insurance issuers; and (2) individual membership associations (IMAs), which are organizations that offer health benefits coverage to members through health insurance issuer contracts. 
Requires the Secretary of Heath and Human Services to pay 50 percent of a state's costs to provide health benefits coverage under a high-risk pool, a reinsurance pool, or other risk-adjustment mechanisms used to subsidize the purchase of private health insurance.

Small Business Health Fairness Act of 2005 - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to provide for establishment and governance of association health plans, which are group health plans whose sponsors are trade, industry, professional, chamber of commerce, or similar business associations and which meet certain ERISA certification requirements.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide individuals with a tax credit for payments for qualified health insurance and allows the Secretary to make advance payments of the credit to providers. Excludes from gross income any compensating coverage payment made by an employer to an employee who elects not to participate in the employer's subsidized health plan.

Requires health insurance issuers offering coverage in connection with a group health plan to provide certain information to the administrator of the plan, including information regarding: (1) plan benefits and exclusions; (2) a participant's financial responsibilities; and (3) legal recourse options for participants and beneficiaries.

 
 
 
 
 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2005-05-31
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations.
action_date: 2005-05-23
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
action_date: 2005-05-05
text: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and Education and the Workforce, 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.
action_date: 2005-05-05
text: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and Education and the Workforce, 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.
action_date: 2005-05-05
text: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and Education and the Workforce, 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.
action_date: 2005-05-05
text: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and Education and the Workforce, 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.
action_date: 2005-05-05
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2005-05-05
text: Introduced in House