<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><BillSummaries>
    <item congress="119" measure-type="hr" measure-number="379" measure-id="id119hr379" originChamber="HOUSE" orig-publish-date="2025-01-14" update-date="2025-03-24">
        <title>Healthcare Freedom and Choice Act</title>
        <summary summary-id="id119hr379v00" currentChamber="HOUSE" update-date="2025-03-24">
            <action-date>2025-01-14</action-date>
            <action-desc>Introduced in House</action-desc>
            <summary-text><![CDATA[<p><strong>Healthcare Freedom and Choice Act</strong></p><p>This bill nullifies a rule regarding short-term, limited-duration health insurance&nbsp;plans. The rule was promulgated by the Internal Revenue Service,&nbsp;Employee Benefits Security Administration, and Department of Health and Human Services; is titled&nbsp;<em>Short-Term, Limited-Duration Insurance and Independent, Noncoordinated Excepted Benefits Coverage</em>; and was published April 3, 2024.</p><p>Short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans are plans that may only offer coverage for a limited amount of time and are exempt from the market requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (e.g., coverage of individuals with preexisting conditions).</p><p>The rule limits the length of the initial contract period for such a plan to no more than three months and, taking into account any renewals or extensions, the maximum coverage period to no more than four months. The rule also includes within the maximum renewal period limitation a new plan sold by the same issuer, or any issuer that is a member of the same controlled group, to the same policyholder within a 12-month period.</p><p>Regulations in effect prior to the rule this bill nullifies permitted short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans with an initial contract period of fewer than 12 months and a maximum coverage period of up to 36 months, including renewals and extensions.</p>]]></summary-text>
        </summary>
    </item>
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        <dc:language>EN</dc:language>
        <dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.</dc:rights>
        <dc:contributor>Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress</dc:contributor>
        <dc:description>This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.</dc:description>
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</BillSummaries>
