S 1261 · 116th Congress 2019–2021, ended

Choose Medicare Act

Introduced May 1, 2019 Originated Senate Sponsor Jeff Merkley D-OR

Fact sheet

Latest action · May 1, 2019 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Progress

Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.

  1. IntroducedMay 1, 2019
  2. Passed SenateNot reached
  3. Passed HouseNot reached
  4. To the PresidentNot reached
  5. Became lawNot reached

Summary

Choose Medicare Act

This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish public health insurance plans and addresses health insurance costs. Such public plans must be offered on health insurance exchanges and (1) meet the requirements of a qualified health plan; (2) cover benefits at the gold plan level; and (3) cover reproductive services, including abortions.

Additionally, the bill makes a series of changes related to health insurance costs, including

  • requiring employers to refer employees to health care navigators to assist with enrollment,
  • establishing an annual limit on out-of-pocket costs for services under Medicare,
  • providing HHS with the authority to negotiate prices under the Medicare prescription drug benefit program,
  • expanding the premium-assistance credit by benchmarking the credit amount to the second-lowest cost gold plan and increasing the income threshold for eligibility,
  • requiring qualified health plans to reduce cost sharing for low-income plan holders,
  • providing funding for states to provide reinsurance to health insurance issuers and to assist individuals with out-of-pocket costs for plans offered through health insurance exchanges,
  • applying the premium rate-setting requirements to large group health plans, and
  • requiring HHS or states to take corrective actions to address unreasonable premium rates set by insurance issuers.

Cosponsors 15

Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from May 1, 2019 to Sep 9, 2019, with 14 there on the day it was introduced.

SeatCosponsorSigned on
D-HIBrian SchatzOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-CTChristopher MurphyOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-NJCory A. BookerOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-CADianne FeinsteinOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-RIJack ReedOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-NHJeanne ShaheenOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-CAKamala D. HarrisOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-NYKirsten E. GillibrandOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-NMMartin HeinrichOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-CTRichard BlumenthalOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-ILRichard J. DurbinOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-WITammy BaldwinOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-ILTammy DuckworthOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-MNTina SmithOriginalMay 1, 2019
D-MDChris Van HollenSep 9, 2019

Actions 2

Everything that happened, newest first.

  1. May 1, 2019Introduced in Senate
  2. May 1, 2019Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Related bills 3

Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.

BillTitleRelationshipLatest action
S 964Marketplace Certainty ActRelated billApr 1, 2019
HR 2463Choose Medicare ActIdentical billDec 10, 2019
HR 6136Protecting Consumers from Unreasonable Rates Act of 2020Related billMar 9, 2020

Subjects

Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Health.

Text 1

Each version as it was printed, newest first.

  1. May 1, 2019Introduced in Senate

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Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.