Ne Colorado News

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Yadira Caraveo, M.D. (CO-08) on June 21 voted against the CHOICE Arrangement Act (H.R. 3799), a bad faith bill that attempts to gut provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) under the false premise that it would lower healthcare costs. In reality, it would leave consumers unprotected and increase health care costs for those who are more expensive to cover and those least able to afford care.

“As a doctor, I’ve been on the frontlines of the healthcare affordability crisis in this country. I ran for elected office because every day I treated families who were struggling with astronomical costs and insufficient coverage,” said Congresswoman Caraveo. “Instead of solving those problems, this bill would only add to the burden – further increasing costs and hurting hardworking families like those I treated in clinic.”

In addition to undermining critical healthcare protections and increasing healthcare costs, this legislation would:

• Increase costs for patients by codifying the use of individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements (ICHRAs);

· This legislation allows employers to offer ICHRAs, which will cause some workers to lose access to more affordable, subsidized Marketplace coverage. 

· Employers can offer ICHRAs only to certain employees, like hourly and older workers, but not C-suite executives, thus leading to higher health care costs and less generous coverage. In fact, a Brookings analysis found that allowing employers to offer ICHRAs alongside traditional group health insurance could increase Marketplace premiums by 16 percent to 93 percent. 

· Finally, these arrangements put the burden on employees to navigate an increasingly complex health care landscape. This bill does not support employees in making informed decisions about whether they would be better off looking for health care in the Marketplace, and if their employer-offered coverage is unaffordable.

• Deregulate insurance allowing certain products to avoid ACA requirements and potentially putting employees at risk; 

· Currently, some self-insured employers purchase additional insurance coverage known as “stop loss,” in which an insurance carrier bears the financial responsibility for claims above a certain threshold. 

· This bill would exempt this type of coverage from both federal and state oversight allowing for the proliferation of harmful insurance products that are not bound by state health insurance protections and ACA standards, such as coverage of Essential Health Benefits. 

For an in-depth explanation of the bill, see the one-pager here.

See a full text of the bill here. 

Original source can be found here