The House passed (220-209) HR 3799, the CHOICE Arrangement Act, which would allow employees to use money from their employer to buy a healthcare plan that works best for them. 

This bill seeks to expand health insurance options available to small businesses and their employees by promoting the formation of multi-trade and interstate employer based groups that can offer association health plans, by facilitating the ability of small businesses to establish self-funded health plans by preventing states from prohibiting those businesses from obtaining stop-loss insurance to back up their plans, and by codifying Trump-era regulations that allow employer-financed health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) to be used by employees to purchase insurance plans on ACA state exchanges, with the HRA to be considered an ACA-compliant employer-sponsored group health plan.

“We all know the high cost of healthcare is a huge burden on employers and their employees,” said Bill Sponsor Rep. Hern (R-OK). “The CHOICE Arrangement Act puts employees in the driver’s seat when it comes to picking their health care plan, and let’s their employer financially support their decision. This bill will build on a Trump Administration initiative that provides working Americans more healthcare options to choose from, while relieving employers from the administrative burden of annual renewals and selecting one or two plans for all their workers.”

Currently, 87% of employers want to offer coverage without the burden of a group plan and 46% of small business leaders said tax credits for employers offering personal options would be most helpful to facilitating their offering of these options.

A one-pager for the CHOICE Arrangements Act can be found HERE 

Supporters of the bill say it will help small businesses and employees alike by increasing the options for lower cost health insurance through an expansion of association health plans, by codifying individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements, and by ensuring that all companies regardless of size have access to stop-loss insurance that allows them to offer self-funded health coverage. They note that the cost of health insurance has been steadily increasing, despite the promises Democrats made about the ACA, and say this measure would help to address those rising costs by giving small businesses more options and greater flexibility. They point out that bill maintains consumer protections against discrimination based on preexisting health conditions, and say Democrats oppose the bill because they, like the Biden administration, want the federal government to dictate everyone's health insurance. Democrats' real objections are that the federal government will lose control, as individuals and companies gain choice.

Opponents of the bill say it recycles prior proposals advanced by Republicans in the past that were intended to undermine the ACA, and that it promotes "flexibilities and choice" at the expense of consumer protections. The health insurance options expanded by the measure, they say, are those that allow for reduced health coverage for employees, something workers would not understand until it was too late. And those options would segment the population according to health risk, providing lower costs for healthier populations while increasing costs for less healthy populations — exactly the outcome the ACA was designed to prevent. Employees who enroll in the types of options promoted by the measure are frequently unaware of what the plans actually cover, and discover those gaps only when they receive enormous medical bills. Bottom line, they say the bill helps companies at the expense of their workers by enabling companies to provide what are essentially "junk" health plans instead of real insurance coverage.

Do you think Congress should pass H.R.3799, the CHOICE Arrangement Act?