PA House Passes Bills To Protect Affordable Care Act Coverage

By Peter Hall | Pennsylvania Capital-Star

With President Donald Trump promising to replace the Affordable Care Act , Pennsylvania House Democrats passed legislation Tuesday to make the health insurance coverage required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandatory under state law if the federal version is repealed.

Four bills passed with broad bipartisan support in the chamber that would require health insurance companies to allow young adults to remain on their parents' insurance until age 26, pay for preventative care and ban lifetime coverage limits and exclusions for pre-existing conditions.

"We've seen threats to the Affordable Care Act in Congress, through executive action and through federal court lawsuits. We can't wait for D.C. politicians or appointees to take away our health care rights for millions of Pennsylvanians," House Insurance Committee Chairperson Perry Warren (D-Bucks) said at a news conference after the votes.

Democrats, including Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and Sen. Vincent Hughes of Philadelphia, called on the Senate to pass the bills, noting Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has said he will sign them.

With a Republican majority in the upper chamber, similar measures passed in the previous House session with bipartisan votes died in the Senate.

Hughes, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, recalled the historic image of Obama signing the ACA with a young boy by his elbow and noted it was an achievement other presidents had attempted for generations before him.

"The context is important. It took decades to get this way. It, and in just a few short years, they're trying to snatch it away. But we must remind them to keep their hands off our health care," Hughes said.

In remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday responding to Hughes, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R-Indiana) called his remarks fearmongering and said the House actions are premature.

Pittman called Trump a "change agent … focused on figuring out a better path forward because it isn't working any more." Senate Republicans believe the best policy is encouraging economic growth to provide family-sustaining jobs that include health insurance as a benefit, Pittman added.

"We don't know what's going to happen in Washington, D.C.," Pittman said. "Let's cool the temperature down a bit … and we will evaluate whatever bills that our friends in the House send to us and we will make rational, reasonable decisions on whether or not we think it is best for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to pursue those policies."

Signed by President Barack Obama in 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was designed to make affordable health insurance available to more people. Dubbed "Obamacare" by opponents, the nickname soon shed its derogatory connotations and became synonymous with more broadly available health insurance.

The law gave states the option to expand medicaid to include more low income people, which Pennsylvania did under Gov. Tom Corbett in 2014 and then further expanded in 2015 after Gov. Tom Wolf took office. The ACA originally pushed others not eligible for Medicaid to purchase minimum essential coverage. Congress in 2019 eliminated a tax penalty for those who chose not to buy insurance.

The minimal coverage, available through federal or state exchanges, is required to include preventative care regardless of pre-existing conditions.

Since its enactment, Republicans have attempted to repeal the ACA at least 50 times according to the University of Pennsylvania's Regulatory Review. In his first term, Trump issued an executive order seeking "prompt repeal" of Obamacare and came with a single vote in the Senate of repealing the ACA. After his reelection last year, Trump has indicated a desire to pursue a replacement for the ACA in his second term.

U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Arizona) in January introduced new legislation that would repeal the ACA. And a Republican budget framework passed last month would require "deep, damaging cuts to Medicaid," Philadelphia U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-2nd District) said.

Each of the four bills passed in the evenly-divided state House did so with at least 20 Republican votes in favor and Hughes told the Capital-Star that Pennsylvanians need to "speak loud and clear" to their state Senators they want the measures to pass.

"These are fundamental protections that clearly are being threatened in Washington, D.C.," Hughes said. "We don't have to live like that with those kinds of threats. We can pass this stuff here in Pennsylvania and protect the people of Pennsylvania, because they certainly have benefited from it."

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com.

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