House Insurance Committee advances four bills to codify ACA protections if federal rules change

The House Insurance Committee on Monday reported four bills that would incorporate core Affordable Care Act (ACA) protections into state law, but only if the ACA or its implementing federal regulations were no longer in effect. Each measure passed the committee by a 14-12 party-line vote.

The package includes: House Bill 404, which would allow parents to keep adult children on parents' health insurance until age 26 and would update antiquated language in state law; House Bill 535, which would ban annual and lifetime dollar limits on benefits that were not limited in plan year 2025; House Bill 618, which would prohibit insurers from denying coverage or applying preexisting-condition exclusions based on health status; and House Bill 755, which would require the state insurance department to publish and maintain a list of preventive services required as of Jan. 1, 2025, and require insurers to cover those services.

Why it matters: The bills are written to create a state-law backstop that would take effect only if federal ACA protections were to lapse. If enacted, they would…