S 1261 116th Congress Senate Health Abortion Administrative law and regulatory procedures Administrative remedies Civil actions and liability Comprehensive health care Consumer affairs Employee benefits and pensions Government studies and investigations Health care costs and insurance Health care coverage and access Health programs administration and funding Income tax credits Inflation and prices Insurance industry and regulation Medicare Prescription drugs Sex and reproductive health

Choose Medicare Act

Introduced: May 1, 2019 Introduced by: Merkley, Jeff Democratic · Oregon See on congress.gov

Everywhere this bill has been 2 steps

Introduced

In committee

Reported out

Passed House

Passed Senate

To President

Became law

May 1, 2019

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

May 1, 2019

Introduced in Senate

Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Choose Medicare Act

This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish public health insurance plans and addresses health insurance costs. Such public plans must be offered on health insurance exchanges and (1) meet the requirements of a qualified health plan; (2) cover benefits at the gold plan level; and (3) cover reproductive services, including abortions.

Additionally, the bill makes a series of changes related to health insurance costs, including

requiring employers to refer employees to health care navigators to assist with enrollment,
establishing an annual limit on out-of-pocket costs for services under Medicare,
providing HHS with the authority to negotiate prices under the Medicare prescription drug benefit program,
expanding the premium-assistance credit by benchmarking the credit amount to the second-lowest cost gold plan and increasing the income threshold for eligibility,
requiring qualified health plans to reduce cost sharing for low-income plan holders,
providing funding for states to provide reinsurance to health insurance issuers and to assist individuals with out-of-pocket costs for plans offered through health insurance exchanges,
applying the premium rate-setting requirements to large group health plans, and
requiring HHS or states to take corrective actions to address unreasonable premium rates set by insurance issuers.