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House of Representative Democrats have unveiled a bill that would enhance many of the ACA’s components while reversing much of the Trump administration’s onslaught to the healthcare law.
House Bill 1425, also known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act, while not entirely new, was recently amended and passed by the House to include a number of changes to further help Americans facing financial hardships from COVID-19.
The bill works by strengthening the ACA by making a number of changes, including the following:
- Expanding premium tax credits beyond 400% of the FPL
- Providing states with $200 million in federal funds to aid in state run health exchanges
- Improving marketplace transparency regarding enrollment
- Lowering prescription drug costs
- Tightening up legislation on short-term plans that limit coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions;
- And building on the ACA’s Medicaid expansion by encouraging states to expand that haven’t
To view the full list and summary of the proposed ACA changes under the bill, click here.
Already, states such as California have implemented some of the changes noted in the bill, such as expanding premium tax credit availability beyond 400% of the FPL.
To date, 37 states and the District of Columbia have expanded Medicaid. For the 14 remaining states that have not adopted the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, roughly 4.4 million uninsured nonelderly adults could become eligible for Medicaid if these states elected to expand their programs, according to a different study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
House Bill 1425 in short, reverses many of the efforts made by the Trump Administration to undermine the law. As to whether this bill is signed into law, it will still need to be passed by the Senate.
While uncertain at this time, the ACA Enhancement Act is telling of what we may see more of following the 2020 election — that more legislation bolstering the ACA will come forward and will likely be signed into law.
Partisan politics aside, however, Americans have turned to the ACA for help amid COVID-19. Four years after the Trump administration took office, the ACA remains. Employers, consider how your organization has adapted to the ACA as the healthcare law turns ten.
Ask yourself, is your organization in full compliance with the law’s Employer Mandate which requires Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) organizations with 50 or more full-time employees and full-time equivalent employees) to offer Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) to at least 95% of their full-time workforce (and their dependents) whereby such coverage meets Minimum Value (MV) and is affordable for the employee or be subject to Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 4980H penalties?
If your ACA practices and filing are not tight-nit, it’s time to face the reality that the ACA may be here forever. With more legislation being proposed to enhance the ACA, the law is here to stay.
Employers identified as having failed to comply with the ACA could be subject to penalty assessments from the IRS as well. The agency is currently issuing Letter 226J penalty notices for the 2017 tax year.
Contact us to learn how to improve your ACA compliance for this year, and every year going forward.
