Underwood Takes Fight for Her Solution to Make Health Care More Affordable, Reduce Premium Costs to Ways and Means Committee
The Health Care Affordability Act would reduce premium costs for consumers who purchase plans through the Health Insurance Marketplace and reduce premium costs for nearly 20 million Americans
WASHINGTON—Yesterday, Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (IL-14) spoke before the Ways and Means Committee to push for her legislation to make health care more affordable and reduce premium costs for consumers who purchase plans through the Health Insurance Marketplace. The Health Care Affordability Act (H.R. 1868) would expand eligibility for premium tax credits beyond 400 percent of the federal poverty line, and would increase the size of the tax credit for all income brackets. With this legislation, introduced by Underwood on March 26, up to 10 million Americans who have insurance will see their premium costs reduced, and at least 9 million people who are currently uninsured would have access to lower-cost coverage. Under the legislation, residents of Illinois' 14th Congressional District would be able to buy a Marketplace health plan for 8.5% of their income or less and more than 39,000 people would see their monthly premiums reduced by hundreds or thousands of dollars.
"While the Affordable Care Act extended coverage to over 20 million people, premiums remain unaffordable for many, especially for people with incomes that—while modest— are too high to qualify for tax credits, which are essential for helping Americans purchasing health insurance on their own," Congresswoman Underwood said to the Committee.
"The solution to this problem is simple and builds on the Affordable Care Act: Congress should eliminate the current tax credit cliff and ensure nearly all consumers have coverage options that cost no more 8.5 percent of their incomes. The Health Care Affordability Act does just this. The average tax credit amount that individual market consumers would gain would likely be similar to the average subsidy for people at the same income levels with employer coverage.
"Mr. Chairman, a key reason the American people chose to send me and many of my colleagues to Congress to last November was to protect coverage for preexisting conditions and lower health care and prescription drug costs. My bill presents an approach that preserves comprehensive coverage while making premiums more affordable for lower income and middle-income Americans."
Full video of Underwood's remarks can be found here.
In May, legislation Underwood introduced to help protect Americans with preexisting conditions passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The legislation (H.R. 1010) would overturn an Administration rule that expands short-term, limited-duration insurance, commonly known as "junk plans." The legislation followed action by the Administration that finalized a rule expanding short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans that do not have to offer patient protections like coverage for preexisting conditions or essential health benefits like maternity care, prescription drugs, and hospitalization that the Affordable Care Act requires. Underwood is on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions subcommittee of the Education and Labor Committee.
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