Improve Affordability
Health Costs Grow Slower than Wages
The best way to lower premiums and out-of-pocket costs is to shrink medical prices and improve incentives for high-value care.
Reform the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA):
Lawmakers need to stabilize the market, lower premiums, increase plan choices, and improve patient access to medicines.
Lower drug costs and pay for outcomes:
Congress should allow payers and manufacturers to pay for drugs based on a patient’s outcome, not the number of treatments (H.R. 2666, the MVP Act).
Lower provider services costs and improve value:
Congress should revamp hospital and physician value-based programs in Medicare to reward patient outcomes, not process changes.
EXPAND COVERAGE
Universal Access to Affordable Coverage
CAHC wants to dramatically increase options and financial support for all Americans in employer coverage and government programs.
Protect employer coverage and strengthen ERISA:
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) has allowed employers to provide employees and their families – no matter where they live or work – with high-quality health insurance for 50 years. It is important to continue protecting and strengthening ERISA by:
- Expanding options for employers and their employees
- Providing financial incentives to ensure employer coverage remains viable
- Enacting policies to lower the cost of health services and drugs to reduce premiums and out-of-pocket costs
Modernize HSAs:
Allow accounts to be used for direct primary care, on-site employer clinics, and telehealth services, and to allow veterans and Native Americans to own an HSA. (H.R. 5687, the HSA Modernization Act, and H.R. 5688, the Bipartisan HSA Improvement Act)
Allow any worker whose employer offers a plan that meets a minimum value to own an HSA.
Create new gig-worker HSAs to recognize changes in the workforce that have created new types of businesses and contract employees.
Expand small group coverage:
Ensure employers have access to self-funded plans (H.R. 2831, Rep. Good), and expand and make permanent Association Health Plans (AHPs) to allow small businesses to band together to negotiate lower costs (H.R. 2868, Rep. Walberg).
Reform the Small Employer Health Insurance Tax Credit by expanding eligibility and allowing the credit to be used for all major medical plans, not just exchange coverage.
INCREASE COMPETITION
More choices leads to improved value, meaningful transparency, and innovation
Most patients live in uncompetitive health markets and have few care options. This drives up costs, limits choices and access, and makes coverage less affordable. CAHC supports transparency, incentives, and rules that bolster competitive markets.
Oppose government-run healthcare.
Oppose government price setting and interference with worker’s benefits (Medicare for All, Public Option, SMART Prices Act, capping or eliminating tax benefits for workers’ health, and the Lowering Drug Costs for American Families Act).
Expand market competition.
Set clear rules against anti-competitive practices (H.R. 3120, the Healthy Competition for Better Care Act).
Ballot Tracker
Below is a list of bills CAHC is actively tracking. If you have any questions about a specific bill, please reach out to the team.
Nothing here.
Medicaid VBPs for Patients (MVP) Act (S. 4204)
Status Introduced in Senate (IS)
To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to codify value-based purchasing arrangements under the Medicaid program and reforms related to price reporting under such arrangements, and for other purposes.
Sponsors/Co-sponsors: Mullin, Markwayne / Sinema, Kyrsten / Scott, Tim / Hassan, Margaret Wood
Date Introduced: 2024-04-30 (118th Congress)
More Info
Last Updated: 2024-04-30Medicaid VBPs for Patients (MVP) Act (H.R. 2666)
Status Introduced in House (IH)
To amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to codify value-based purchasing arrangements under the Medicaid program and reforms related to price reporting under such arrangements, and for other purposes.
Sponsors/Co-sponsors: Guthrie, Brett / Eshoo, Anna G. / Joyce, John / Auchincloss, Jake / Miller-Meeks, Mariannette / Peters, Scott H.
Date Introduced: 2023-04-18 (118th Congress)
More Info
Last Updated: 2023-04-18CHOICE Arrangement Act (H.R. 3799)
Status Engrossed in House (EH)
An Act To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for health reimbursement arrangements integrated with individual health insurance coverage.
Date Introduced: 2023-06-05 (118th Congress)
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Last Updated: 2023-06-21Telehealth Benefit Expansion for Workers Act of 2023 (H.R. 824)
Status Introduced in House (IH)
To amend title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act, the Employee Retirement Income and Security Act of 1974, and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat benefits for telehealth services offered under a group health plan or group health insurance coverage as excepted benefits.
Sponsors/Co-sponsors: Walberg, Tim / DelBene, Suzan K. / Craig, Angie / Estes, Ron / Sherrill, Mikie / Allen, Rick W.
Date Introduced: 2023-02-02 (118th Congress)
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Last Updated: 2023-02-02Association Health Plans Act (AHPA) (H.R. 2868)
Status Reported in House (RH)
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to clarify the treatment of certain association health plans as employers, and for other purposes.
Sponsors/Co-sponsors: Walberg, Tim / Foxx, Virginia / Good, Bob / Allen, Rick W. / Crenshaw, Dan / Burgess, Michael C. / Thompson, Glenn / Dunn, Neal P.
Date Introduced: 2023-04-25 (118th Congress)
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Last Updated: 2023-06-14Self Insurance Protection Act (SIPA) (H.R. 2813)
Status Reported in House (RH)
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, the Public Health Service Act, and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude from the definition of health insurance coverage certain medical stop-loss insurance obtained by certain plan sponsors of group health plans, and for other purposes.
Sponsors/Co-sponsors: Good, Bob / Walberg, Tim / Smucker, Lloyd
Date Introduced: 2023-04-25 (118th Congress)
More Info
Last Updated: 2023-06-20