Care for COVID-19 Act 2.0
Latest action. Referred to the subcommitteeA smaller panel inside a standing committee with jurisdiction over a slice of its subject matter. Most hearings and the first markup usually happen here.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) on Health.
Care for COVID-19 Act 2.0
This bill establishes a special health plan enrollment period and requires health plans to cover certain services during the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) public health emergency. The special enrollment period applies to plans offered through health insurance exchanges and is available to eligible individuals for eight weeks beginning one week after this bill is enacted. The bill also funds outreach activities for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to notify individuals about the special enrollment period.
Additionally, the bill requires private health insurance plans to cover, without any cost-sharing requirement, medically necessary services for individuals who have been diagnosed with, or are presumed to have, COVID-19. HHS, the Department of Labor, and the Department of the Treasury must jointly issue guidance that specifies applicable medically necessary services not later than one week after this bill is enacted. Further, HHS must reimburse health plans for the amount of such cost-sharing requirements that are not imposed.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on April 10, 2020. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on April 14, 2020: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 116th Congress (2019-20), 344 of the 14,345 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Raul Ruiz (D-CA) introduced it on April 10, 2020, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Democrat.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on April 10, 2020, 2344 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2340 days ago, on April 14, 2020.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 116th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2021 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers