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House Insurance Committee advances four bills to codify ACA protections if federal rules change
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Summary
The House Insurance Committee reported four bills — HB404, HB535, HB618 and HB755 — that would mirror key Affordable Care Act protections in state law if the ACA or its implementing regulations were reversed. Each passed the committee on party-line votes, 14-12.
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Affordable Care Act (ACA) protections into state law, but only if the ACA or its implementing federal regulations were no longer in effect.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 preserve specific consumer protections — dependent coverage to age 26, bans on certain dollar limits, preexisting-condition protections and a state-managed list of covered preventive services — without waiting for federal action.
House Bill 404: The bill would allow parents to keep adult children on their health plans until the child turns 26 and would replace the terms “mental retardation and physical handicap” with “intellectual or physical disability.” It also makes technical edits to an existing state law that permits employers to provide dependent coverage up to age 30. The committee motion to report HB404 as committed passed 14-12. The chair moved the bill and Representative Venkat seconded; committee discussion consisted of bill explanation and a party-line recorded vote.
House Bill 535: HB535 would prohibit health insurers from imposing annual or lifetime dollar limits on any benefit that was not subject to limits in plan year 2025. The bill's provisions would take effect only if the ACA or its implementing regulations were no longer in force. The motion to report HB535 as committed passed 14-12 after a brief committee explanation and a party-line vote; Representative Venkat explained the bill and Representative Sappy seconded the motion.
House Bill 618: HB618 would ban preexisting-condition exclusions and other forms of health-status discrimination by insurers, conditioned to take effect only if federal ACA protections lapse. The committee reported HB618 as committed by a 14-12 vote; Representative Malagari explained the measure and Representative Kosarowski seconded the motion.
House Bill 755: HB755 would require the state insurance department to publish a list of preventive services that were required to be covered as of Jan. 1, 2025. The department would be allowed to add or remove services only after a triggering event — described in the bill as updates from “Federal Advisory Commissions” — followed by a public comment period and consideration of cost, scientific evidence and discrimination risk. The bill includes a religious exemption and, like the other measures, takes effect only if the ACA or relevant federal regulations were no longer in force. The committee reported HB755 as committed, 14-12; Representative Malagari moved the bill and Representative Haddock seconded.
Votes at a glance: Each bill was reported out of committee by a vote of 14-12. Committee members stated the votes were along party lines, with Republican members recorded as voting no and Democratic members recorded as voting yes; individual member roll-call names were not specified in the committee record excerpt.
What the committee did not decide: All four bills were reported from committee (referred as “committed”); the transcript excerpt does not show floor action, enactment, or effective dates beyond the conditional triggers specified in the bills. Several technical clarifications mentioned in committee — including the department's criteria for adding or removing preventive services and the existing state employer-dependent coverage rule allowing age-30 coverage — were noted but not altered in committee testimony.
The meeting used substantially less time than the 90 minutes allotted; after the votes the committee adjourned.
