I 111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 109 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 6, 2009 Mr. Fortenberry introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To provide for the offering of Health Benefit Plans to individuals, to increase funding for State high risk health insurance pools, and to promote best practice protocols for State high risk pools.

1.

Short title; findings and purposes; table of contents

(a)

Short title

This Act may be cited as the America’s Affordable Health Care Act of 2009. (b)

Findings and purposes

(1)

Findings

Congress finds the following: (A)The regulation of the practice of insurance is a State prerogative. (B)It is in the interests of health care consumers that Congress allows for policies that increase the affordability of health insurance products. (C)The Federal Government provides States and the medical community with public financing to support the medical needs of the uninsured. (D)There is a correlation between the amount of insurance benefits and the cost of insurance products. (E)State mandate laws have created barriers to affordable health coverage. (F)A number of States allow for the creation of insurance products that recognize the increased costs associated with mandate laws. (G)Consumers throughout the United States are finding it increasingly hard to secure affordable health care coverage which contributes to the national uninsured rate. (2)

Federal insurance product

Congress further finds that it is in the interests of taxpayers, health care purchasers, and the health care provider community, to allow for a class of federally certified insurance products that can be purchased in the individual market without being subject to State benefit mandate laws. (3)

Purposes

The purposes of this Act are— (A)to promote increased affordability and access to health care coverage for citizens of the United States; (B)to allow consumers the ability to make choices by weighing insurance benefits with the cost of insurance; (C)to provide incentives to health plans and health insurance issuers to offer increasingly affordable insurance policies to all those in the individual market; (D)to provide low-income and uninsured workers with incentives to purchase insurance policies; (E)to provide incentives to companies and States to offer health care solutions for high risk beneficiaries; (F)to provide for new coverage opportunities to solve the problems of affordability and uninsurance; and (G)to promote the availability of health insurance coverage through high risk pools for individuals whose health conditions create barriers to such coverage. (c)

Table of contents

The table of contents of this Act is as follows: Sec. 1. Short title; findings and purposes; table of contents. Title I—Health Benefit Plans Sec. 101. Certification of Health Benefit Plans. Sec. 102. Conditions for certification. Sec. 103. Review of implementation. Sec. 104. Definitions. Title II—Expansion of State High Risk Health Insurance Pools Sec. 201. Increasing and expanding funding for State high risk health insurance pools. Sec. 202. Qualified high risk pools best practices guidelines and grant program.