What This Bill Does
This bill changes how much money people have to pay toward health insurance premiums based on their household income. The bill amends the tax code to create a new sliding scale for premium costs that applies to people whose household income falls between 150 percent and 400 percent of the poverty line.
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Who It Affects
People who buy health insurance and have household incomes between 150 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty line (a measure of income used by the government to determine financial need).
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Key Provisions
* People earning up to 150 percent of the poverty line pay zero percent of their income toward premiums (Sec. 2(a)).
* People earning between 150 and 200 percent of the poverty line pay between 0 and 2 percent of their income toward premiums on a sliding scale (Sec. 2(a)).
* People earning between 200 and 250 percent of the poverty line pay between 2 and 4 percent of their income toward premiums on a sliding scale (Sec. 2(a)).
* People earning between 250 and 300 percent of the poverty line pay between 4 and 6 percent of their income toward premiums on a sliding scale (Sec. 2(a)).
* People earning between 300 and 400 percent of the poverty line pay between 6 and 8.5 percent of their income toward premiums on a sliding scale (Sec. 2(a)).
* People earning 400 percent of the poverty line or higher pay 8.5 percent of their income toward premiums (Sec. 2(a)).
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What Changes
The bill removes a previous income cap that limited help to people earning only up to 400 percent of the poverty line. The bill also removes an old premium calculation method and replaces it with the new sliding scale percentages listed above.
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Important Definitions
* **Household income**: Not explicitly defined in bill text.
* **Poverty line**: Not defined in bill text (this is a reference to an existing federal measure).
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Effective Date
These changes apply to tax years beginning after December 31, 2022 (Sec. 2(c)).
I
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 1692
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to improve affordability and
reduce premium costs of health insurance for consumers.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 22, 2023
Ms. UNDERWOOD (for herself, Mr. ALLRED, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Ms. BLUNT
ROCHESTER, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. COHEN, Ms. DELAURO, Ms.
LOIS FRANKEL of Florida, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Ms. KUSTER, Ms.
MANNING, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. PELOSI, Mr. POCAN, Ms. POR-
TER, Mr. QUIGLEY, Ms. SCANLON, Mr. SCHIFF, Ms. SCHRIER, Ms. SE-
WELL, Mr. SOTO, and Mr. TRONE) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to improve
affordability and reduce premium costs of health insur-
ance for consumers.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Health Care Afford-
4
ability Act of 2023’’.
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•HR 1692 IH
SEC. 2. IMPROVE AFFORDABILITY AND REDUCE PREMIUM
1
COSTS OF HEALTH INSURANCE FOR CON-
2
SUMERS.
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(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 36B(b)(3)(A)(i) of the In-
4
ternal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as fol-
5
lows:
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‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—Except as pro-
7
vided in clause (ii), the applicable percent-
8
age for any taxable year shall be the per-
9
centage such that the applicable percent-
10
age for any taxpayer whose household in-
11
come is within an income tier specified in
12
the following table shall increase, on a slid-
13
ing scale in a linear manner, from the ini-
14
tial premium percentage to the final pre-
15
mium percentage specified in such table
16
for such income tier:
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‘‘In the case of household
income (expressed as
a percent of poverty line)
within the following income tier:
The initial
premium
percentage is—
The final
premium
percentage is—
Up to 150.0 percent ...................................
0.0
0.0
150.0 percent up to 200.0 percent .............
0.0
2.0
200.0 percent up to 250.0 percent .............
2.0
4.0
250.0 percent up to 300.0 percent .............
4.0
6.0
300.0 percent up to 400.0 percent .............
6.0
8.5
400.0 percent and higher ...........................
8.5
8.5’’.
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—
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•HR 1692 IH
(1) Section 36B(c)(1)(A) of the Internal Rev-
1
enue Code of 1986 is amended by striking ‘‘but does
2
not exceed 400 percent’’.
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(2) Section 36B(b)(3)(A) of such Code is
4
amended by striking clause (iii).
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(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
6
this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after
7
December 31, 2022.
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Æ
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