Keeping Health Insurance Affordable Act of 2019
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Keeping Health Insurance Affordable Act of 2019
This bill alters and establishes several programs relating to health insurance and prescription drugs.
Specifically, the bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a public health insurance option through health insurance exchanges. The bill sets forth corresponding implementing provisions, including criteria for payment rates and provider participation. (For example, initial payment rates for providers and services must be set at the same rates as under Medicare; HHS may subsequently alter payment rates in accordance with a specified administrative process.)
The bill also expands eligibility for (1) the health insurance premium tax credit, and (2) repayment limitations for excess advance payments of the premium tax credit.
Additionally, the bill requires drug manufacturers, as a condition of participation in the Medicare prescription drug benefit, to issue rebates to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for drugs dispensed to certain low-income enrollees.
The bill also requires the CMS to (1) negotiate with pharmaceutical companies regarding prices for drugs covered under the Medicare prescription drug benefit, and (2) serve as a prescription drug plan sponsor for a nationwide prescription drug plan under Medicare.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on January 3, 2019. 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 January 3, 2019: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- 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?
Ben Cardin (D-MD) introduced it on January 3, 2019. No cosponsors are recorded.
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 January 3, 2019, 2807 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2807 days ago, on January 3, 2019.
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
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers