Affordable Care Act protections approved in House

(The Center Square) – A package of bills that enshrine federal insurance mandates into Pennsylvania law passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Supporters say doing so guarantees the coverage expectations residents have grown accustomed to since the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010 will exist, even if Congress or the Supreme Court makes changes.

Two bills ban annual and lifetime limits and preexisting condition exclusion policies. The third stipulates that dependents can keep parental health insurance coverage through age 26.

The conditions are familiar to most, but lawmakers said the 2022 high court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade – thereby kicking the decision back to each state – “made painfully clear” that Pennsylvania must move ahead on its own, and now.

“The ACA has been under constant legal and political attack since its inception,” said Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Pittsburgh, who sponsored the ban on lifetime coverage limits. “Every few years, we hear of another lawsuit that could reach the Supreme Court or proposal in Washington that could dismantle these vital protections. While we hope these challenges will fail, hope is not enough to guarantee the wellbeing of Pennsylvanians.”

Rep. Jim Haddock, D-Hughestown, who sponsored the ban on preexisting condition exclusions, said the federal law gave coverage to 5.4 million Pennsylvanians, including those with diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure.

“These exclusions meant that many Pennsylvanians could not access essential medical care without unnecessary burdens on their finances and health,” he said. “We don’t want to go back to those policies of the past, so we need to give people peace of mind that their insurance coverage will continue, no matter what happens at the federal level.”

All of the bills passed the lower chamber with overwhelming support and now head to the Senate for consideration.

The most recent legal challenge against the Affordable Care Act, brought by Texas businesses and residents, says no-cost preventative care covered by insurance companies violates the Constitution. This mandate covers cancer screenings for at-risk patients, counseling for pregnant and postpartum women and medications for heart disease and HIV.

The Biden administration asked the high court to intervene in September.

In another pending lawsuit filed in August, 19 Republican state attorneys general say undocumented migrants covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program shouldn’t have access to the federal insurance marketplace.

KFF, a health care policy nonprofit based in San Francisco, said there’s been more than 2,000 legal challenges to the law since 2010. As of 2021, the Supreme Court has upheld the law three times.