Defense funding push reopens door for stalled ICHRA, HSA reforms
What You Need To Know
- Congressional leaders are trying to raise $200 billion to pay for the military action in Iran.
- The House Budget chairman has talked about changing the ACA subsidy system.
- The House Energy & Commerce chair has suggested bringing back health provisions cut out of the OBBBA package.
Republican leaders in Congress are trying to come up with $200 billion in funding for U.S. military action in Iran.
That could create a new chance for supporters of individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements and health savings accounts to get ICHRA and HSA provisions through Congress.
The vehicle would be a “budget reconciliation bill,” or a special kind of bill that can move through the Senate with just 51 votes, rather than the 60-vote majority normally required for ordinary bills.
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, has proposed squeezing $30 billion out of Affordable Care Act funding by using a reconciliation bill to change the ACA cost-sharing reduction subsidy.
The subsidy helps low-income ACA exchange plan users pay their deductibles and coinsurance bills.
House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., who shares jurisdiction over health legislation with other committees, told a Politico reporter that he thinks the new reconciliation bill could include some of the health provisions that were cut out of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer.
The missing OBBBA health provisions: One health provision cut out of the House version of OBBBA would have increased health savings account contribution limits to $8,000 per year for an individual and $17,100 for a family, up from $4,000 for an individual and $8,550 for a family today.
Another would let workers ages 55 and older contribute an extra $1,000 per year to their HSAs.
The highest-profile health provision eliminated might have been a section that would have added a federal ICHRA plan statute.
ICHRAs help workers use employer cash to pay for individual or family health coverage.
The ICHRA provision in the OBBBA bill would have renamed ICHRAs Custom Health Option and Individual Care Expense arrangements.
Today, an employer with an ICHRA plan cannot let workers choice between using the ICHRA plan and a traditional group health plan.
An employer with a CHOICE arrangement plan could let workers choose between using a cash-for-coverage plan and a traditional group health plan.