Rosen Co-Sponsors Bill to Improve the ACA by Extending Affordable Health Coverage to Families

WASHINGTON, June 25 -- Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, issued the following news release:

Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), announced her co-sponsorship of the Family Coverage Act, legislation that would amend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to provide tax credits to offset the cost of health insurance to spouses and children when an individual's employer-sponsored coverage is not affordable for their family.

"No issue matters more to Nevada families than access to affordable, quality health care," said Senator Rosen. "This legislation will make much-needed changes to the ACA by improving provisions that currently prevent low and middle-income families from receiving tax credits to afford coverage. I'll continue to support commonsense legislation that improves Nevadans' access to quality health care."

BACKGROUND: Under the ACA, large employers are required to offer comprehensive, affordable health coverage to their employees. If the employee is able to access affordable coverage through their employer, they become ineligible to receive ACA tax credits that can help purchase health insurance coverage through the ACA's exchanges.

In interpreting this part of the ACA, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has argued that if an employee is able to access affordable health insurance coverage through his or her employer, but family coverage is unaffordable, the family is also barred from tax credits to help them purchase other insurance for the family on the ACA's exchanges, the same as the individual.

The Family Coverage Act would improve upon the ACA by allowing an employee's dependents to access ACA tax credits if the cost of family coverage offered by an employer is greater than 9.86 percent of household income (as adjusted by the IRS).