Eight Senators Introduce Emergency, One-Year Legislation Allowing States to Offer Americans More Health Insurance Options Next Year

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14—A group of eight United States Senators today introduced emergency, one-year legislation that would give states the authority to allow Americans who rely on Obamacare subsidies to have more options to buy health insurance unavailable on the failing Obamacare exchanges, and waive any penalty if they do not find a plan that suits their or their family’s needs.

Senate health committee chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said: “If you aren’t on Medicare or Medicaid and don’t obtain your health insurance through your employer, you are probably one of the nearly 11 million Americans who purchase their insurance on their own through the Obamacare exchange in your state. And you’ve probably read in the news that rates may be 60 percent higher next year than they were this year for the same insurance policy. And come November, nearly a third of the nation’s counties will have only one insurer for you to choose from when you have to buy health insurance on the regional Obamacare exchange as the market collapses and insurance companies are leaving the Obamacare exchanges in droves. This legislation would allow your state to give you the option of buying health insurance wherever you can find it whether on or off the Obamacare exchange.”

“This one-year solution is not a substitute for the long-term need to repeal and replace Obamacare with step-by-step reforms that transform the health care delivery system by putting patients in charge, giving them more choices and reducing the cost of health care so that more people can afford it,” he continued. “That would require a Republican president next year, but it gives Americans a real solution for next year and lets them know that we are on their side. Even if we have a Democratic president next year, we cannot continue without making big, structural changes soon to avoid a collapse of our nation’s health insurance market.”

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said: “More than 11,000 people in my home state recently learned that they would have to find a new health care plan after an insurer announced that it would be leaving the New Hampshire partnership exchange next year. Higher premiums and fewer choices are impacting real people today, and hardworking Granite Staters can’t afford to keep taking these hits. Our legislation would provide a temporary means to lessen the burdens of ObamaCare on New Hampshire families and individuals by allowing eligible individuals to use a subsidy to purchase health insurance outside of the exchanges, which may offer less expensive options than plans available through the exchanges.  This bill will help bring back some much-needed flexibility and choice in the health insurance marketplace, both of which ObamaCare has limited.”

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said: “In more than half of all counties in America, there will be only be two or fewer carriers offering coverage on the Obamacare exchange. Hard-working families facing higher premiums because of Obamacare deserve relief.  This legislation will give families more choices in 2017, as Republicans work to replace this failed law with real reforms that will make health care more affordable for all Americans.”

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) said: “Time has shown that Obamacare is resulting in fewer and more expensive choices for the American people.  This legislation would increase options for families in Mississippi and elsewhere to obtain health insurance without being locked into troubled Obamacare exchanges,”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) said: “I have worked for years to limit the damage and harm done to real people by Obamacare, a partisan policy that promised marketplace competition and higher quality health plans at lower costs and instead delivered the exact opposite. This bill would provide necessary relief to Wisconsinites who, under Obamacare, would be penalized for not purchasing a product that they cannot afford or does not meet their needs. It will allow the state to provide Wisconsinites receiving subsidies more options than just those offered on the Obamacare exchanges for 2017.”

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said: “Ohioans need immediate relief from the skyrocketing cost of Obamacare. Premiums have increased in Ohio more than 90% since the President’s health care law went into place. This bill would provide individuals who have suffered under the high costs and fewer choices of Obamacare more options to receive coverage—which means more competition which in turn brings down costs. After eight years of stagnating wages, slow economic growth, and a rising cost of living, Ohioans deserve the relief this legislation would provide, not a health care system they can’t afford.”                                                             

The legislation, introduced by U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), would:

• Give states with a failing Obamacare exchange the authority to allow residents to use their Obamacare subsidy to purchase any health plan of their choice, even those off the exchange, for the 2017 plan year.
• If the state chooses to use this authority to allow residents to use subsidies outside of the exchange, the legislation will waive the Obamacare law’s requirement that you must buy a specific health care plan or pay a fine of as much as $2,000 for a family of four next year.

A summary of the State Flexibility to Provide Affordable Health Options Act is available online HERE.

A copy of the legislation is available online HERE.

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