The House Republican Health Care Plan Is Here

The House Republicans’ health care package is finally here, and it might not be what you expect.

On Friday, Republicans released their bill to bring down health care-related costs. It comes in response to Democrat talking points on the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits at the end of the year.

“Republicans are offering clear, responsible alternatives that will lower premium costs and increase access and health care options for all Americans,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., said of the package. “The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act will actually deliver affordable health care—and we look forward to advancing it through the House.”

House Republican Leadership aides told reporters that one of the main changes is “we’re going to appropriate money for cost-sharing reductions to reduce premiums in the individual market by over 11%.”

As the Kaiser Family Foundation explains, cost-sharing reductions provide “assistance with out-of-pocket expenses when people get medical care or fill a prescription.”

Surprisingly, unlike some of the most prominent Republican health care proposals, the bill does not set up flexible health savings accounts as an alternative to the enhanced tax credits. This was part of prominent proposals from Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

A House Republican Leadership aide told The Daily Signal that they remain open to this idea in the future, but that their “bills right now, I think, have a real strong consensus, and again, lower premiums for all Americans.”

Additionally, the bill includes the Self Insurance Protection Act to give employers “more options, more tailored care, and fewer price controls,” a leadership aide said.

This bill would preempt state laws that prevent employers from “using stop-loss policies to insure against excess or unexpected claims losses,” as a Congressional Budget Office summary explains.

Johnson’s statement says that this “ensures small and mid-sized employers can protect themselves from catastrophic claims by clarifying that stop-loss insurance is not ‘health insurance coverage.’ This would allow small businesses to offer their employees more tailored, affordable care.”

Leadership’s package also includes a pharmacy benefit manager transparency provision, requiring that these third-party administrators of prescription drug benefits “be more transparent with employers,” as House Republican Leadership aides explained.

As Johnson’s statement explains further, pharmacy benefit managers are required “to provide employers with detailed data on prescription drug spending, rebates, spread pricing, and formulary decisions—empowering plans and workers with the transparency they deserve.”

An aide also explained that the process will allow for a vote on an amendment, which the aide expects “will be some approach to ACA enhanced [tax credit] extension.”

The bill additionally includes Hyde protections to cost-sharing reduction funds from paying for abortions accept to save the life of the mother or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

House and Senate Democrats have in recent days been demanding a three-year extension of the expiring boosts to Obamacare premium tax credits, which Republicans have argued are inflationary and prone to fraud.

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