[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 124 (Tuesday, July 24, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H7107-H7109]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EQUITABLE ACCESS TO CARE AND HEALTH ACT
Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 1201) to amend section 5000A of the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 to provide an additional religious exemption from the individual
health coverage mandate, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1201
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Equitable Access to Care and
Health Act'' or the ``EACH Act''.
[[Page H7108]]
SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION FROM HEALTH COVERAGE
RESPONSIBILITY REQUIREMENT.
(a) In General.--Section 5000A(d)(2)(A) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows:
``(A) Religious conscience exemptions.--
``(i) In general.--Such term shall not include any
individual for any month if such individual has in effect an
exemption under section 1311(d)(4)(H) of the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act which certifies that--
``(I) such individual is a member of a recognized religious
sect or division thereof which is described in section
1402(g)(1), and is adherent of established tenets or
teachings of such sect or division as described in such
section; or
``(II) such individual is a member of a religious sect or
division thereof which is not described in section
1402(g)(1), who relies solely on a religious method of
healing, and for whom the acceptance of medical health
services would be inconsistent with the religious beliefs of
the individual.
``(ii) Special rules.--
``(I) Medical health services defined.--For purposes of
this subparagraph, the term `medical health services' does
not include routine dental, vision and hearing services,
midwifery services, vaccinations, necessary medical services
provided to children, services required by law or by a third
party, and such other services as the Secretary of Health and
Human Services may provide in implementing section
1311(d)(4)(H) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act.
``(II) Attestation required.--Clause (i)(II) shall apply to
an individual for months in a taxable year only if the
information provided by the individual under section
1411(b)(5)(A) of such Act includes an attestation that the
individual has not received medical health services during
the preceding taxable year.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a)
shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31,
2018.
(c) Construction.--Nothing in the amendment made by
subsection (a) shall preempt any State law requiring the
provision of medical treatment for children, especially those
who are seriously ill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Roskam) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois.
General Leave
Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on H.R. 1201, currently under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to see this bipartisan bill is getting a
vote today.
H.R. 1201, the EACH Act, or Equitable Access to Care and Health Act,
introduced by my colleague, Mr. Rodney Davis from Illinois, provides
commonsense relief from ObamaCare's mandate to purchase insurance from
those who object on religious grounds.
This bill extends the religious conscience exemption from ObamaCare's
individual mandate to those individuals who rely solely on a religious
method of healing. Receiving medical health services, as we
traditionally think of them, is inconsistent with the religious belief
of Christian Scientists.
This bill says that for people who choose not to use traditional
healthcare or services, they are fully exempted from the Affordable
Care Act's requirement to buy insurance. For Christian Scientists, if
they bought the insurance plan, they wouldn't use it anyway. If you
don't believe in something, why should the government force you to
participate.
In healthcare, so many of our choices have been restricted because of
the Affordable Care Act's domino effect across the entire healthcare
sector. The EACH Act takes a step in the right direction by restoring
freedom for people who had to face a dire decision of either violating
their conscience by purchasing ObamaCare or violating the law. This is
an unfair position that the law should not put them in, and I hope we
can finally resolve this by passing the EACH Act today.
We must come together to help those who have been hurt by this
intrusion into their lives. This bill has widespread bipartisan
support. In fact, the House passed a similar bill last Congress by
voice vote. Once more, passing the EACH Act will reduce the deficit by
$31 million.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as
I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the House has passed this bill before, making
clarifications on the existing religious exemptions for healthcare. I
understand that religious groups have important healthcare concerns
that must be taken seriously.
I support this bill. But we should be talking about issues in
healthcare that our constituents are bringing up to us every day, like
skyrocketing prescription drug costs, increasing premium costs, and
threats to guaranteed coverage for preexisting conditions, a direct
result of efforts by my Republican colleagues.
The Trump administration continues to raise costs and reduce access
to affordable healthcare in its never-ending effort to sabotage the
Affordable Care Act.
In just the last few weeks, the administration has refused to defend
protections for Americans with preexisting conditions, stopped risk
adjustment payments to health plans covering sicker patients, and again
slashed payments to the navigators that help people access healthcare
insurance. These and many other misguided efforts are raising the costs
for those Americans who need healthcare coverage the most.
We should be examining and responding to this growing threat to
affordable care, not ignoring it.
I encourage my Republican colleagues to bring to the floor bills that
truly address the healthcare cost crisis that middle class Americans
and seniors are facing. After all, that was their promise to our
constituents.
In 2015, the President promised:
We're going to terminate ObamaCare. We're going to terminate it, it's
going to be terminated. It's going to be replaced with something much
better and something much less expensive for you and for the country.
Republicans and the President have failed to present the public with
a better plan, and they have failed to drive down the cost to patients.
As a matter of fact, their work has driven costs up. The cumulative
ACA sabotage by the Republican Congress and the administration are
adding as much as 24 percent of healthcare premium increases in my home
State of California.
Now they should work with us to strengthen and protect existing
programs so that our constituents can go to the doctor when they need
to or get surgery or a drug that their lives depend on. As Members of
Congress, this is our responsibility.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, the good news for my friend from California
is that tomorrow he will have an opportunity to vote on bills that will
lower the costs of healthcare with the health savings account agenda
that is forthcoming.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Smith), a longstanding advocate on behalf of Christian
Scientists, who has tried to bring rescue to them.
{time} 1445
Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois
(Mr. Roskam) for yielding me time, and I thank another gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis) for introducing this legislation.
The Equitable Access to Care and Health Act is a bill that I strongly
support. It expands the religious conscience exemption in the
Affordable Care Act.
The bipartisan legislation has broad support in the House and in the
Senate. It has passed the House by voice vote in the last two
Congresses.
The ACA currently provides for a religious conscience exemption, but
the exemption is unduly narrow and applies only to a few faiths. This
exemption should be expanded to accommodate other religions whose
sincerely-held religious beliefs could cause them not to purchase
healthcare insurance.
With the recent repeal of the individual mandate, the CBO now
estimates that the bill will result in about $30 million in cost
savings. I hope my colleagues will support this piece of legislation.
It will help advance the cause of religious freedom.
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as
I may consume.
[[Page H7109]]
I just want to mention that my friend and committee member was half
right in what he said about tomorrow's vote. We will be voting on some
healthcare bills tomorrow, and they are bills that will help. But they
will help people that either have the money to pay for healthcare or
people who are healthy, not the folks who need access to quality,
affordable healthcare.
I would be remiss if I didn't point out that, contrary to this
party's position for decades, these bills aren't paid for, and they are
going to add about $70 billion worth of costs to our national debt.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis).
Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Roskam for his
leadership on this issue. I also want to thank the gentleman from
California (Mr. Thompson), because this bill that we are talking about
today is and has been rife with nothing but bipartisan support. It is
issues like this that we can work together to correct. No matter what
the bill is, no matter what some of the other outlying issues of
implementation of certain laws that may or may not affect our
constituents and how they do so, but the fact that we are trying to fix
this once and for all, for many in this country, is a testament to what
good happens here in a bipartisan fashion.
I also want to thank the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee,
Kevin Brady, my good friend, for his continued leadership on this issue
and helping to make sure this bill comes back to the floor.
This Congress has an opportunity to continue the bipartisanship I
just talked about and promote religious liberty and fairness by passing
the EACH Act, because the EACH Act modestly expands the religious
conscience exemptions under the Affordable Care Act to include
individuals who rely solely on religious methods of healing.
The current religious conscience exemption under the Affordable Care
Act exclusively applies to only a few select faiths. As a result, some
Americans, including Christian Scientists, are required to purchase
medical health insurance that does not cover the healthcare of their
religious practice and choice. They are, therefore, forced with the
choice of violating their conscience by purchasing traditional health
insurance or violating the law by not complying with any individual
mandate.
Under the EACH Act, applicants must attest annually that they are a
member of a religious group, that they rely solely on a religious
method of healing, and that they have not received medical health
services during the preceding taxable year.
This is a very important point, Mr. Speaker. Additionally, with the
help of input from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the bill makes
it clear that the legislation does not preempt any State laws requiring
the provision of medical treatment for children. Further, if a parent
needs to provide a necessary medical service to a child, doing so would
not invalidate the individual's exemption.
The EACH Act, again, is truly an example of bipartisan legislation
with input from stakeholders that actually made it better. I am proud
to have worked with my friend and colleague, Mr. Keating, on moving
this legislation forward. He knows this issue well. His home State of
Massachusetts established a similar religious conscience exemption in
State law more than 10 years ago.
I also represent Principia College, a college for Christian
Scientists in Elsah, Illinois, one that we have a few graduates of
right here in Congress, including the last speaker, Mr. Lamar Smith.
While working on this bill, I have heard from both students and
professors from Principia on the importance of passing this legislation
and what it would mean to their lives.
One such student wrote: ``I feel religious liberty is such a vital
part of the American exceptionalism that permeates worldly thought, and
the passing of this bill will only contribute to the commitment of our
government to preserve that right. My family has paid excessive amounts
for healthcare, among other expenses, that we do not use due to our
reliance on the Christian Science healing for prayer. I do not believe
Christian Scientists should feel that they are being punished in some
way for expressing their First Amendment right.''
Well, Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand up here today for their First
Amendment right.
This legislation is about as straightforward as it gets. It is
broadly bipartisan, promotes religious liberty and fairness, and it
also saves the taxpayers money. The Congressional Budget Office
estimated passing the EACH Act would save taxpayers an additional $31
million, if signed into law.
The EACH Act passed this House in both the 113th and 114th
Congresses, but, unfortunately, it was held up in the Senate. It is
time that Congress finally passes the EACH Act out of both Chambers and
sends it to th President's desk for his signature.
I urge a ``yes'' vote.
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close. Does
the gentleman from Illinois have further speakers?
Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.
Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close. I
yield myself the balance of my time, and I thank the sponsors for their
work on this bill. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to
support this bill.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
We hold conscience in this House tenderly. Our Founders were wise. In
the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights, the first freedom that they
articulated was our freedom to worship. What you are hearing today is a
bipartisan consensus that we value that, and we recognize the power of
conscience, the power of religious liberty, the power of being able to
worship as one pleases. That is something that Mr. Davis from Illinois
is advocating today, Mr. Thompson is supporting as well, along with the
longstanding work of Mr. Smith from Texas.
Passing this bill will give those who object to health insurance on
religious grounds the ability to opt out of the system that they don't
want to participate in, in its entirety. They won't have to face a
choice between violating their belief and violating the law anymore. I
urge its passage, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Roskam) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 1201, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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