A Simple Bill Rooted in Fairness

Nebraskans are facing more bad news as Obamacare continues to unravel. On September 23, Blue Cross Blue Shield announced its departure from Nebraska’s exchange due to losses totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

This change from the state’s largest insurer will leave 20,000 Nebraskans looking for new coverage as they enter 2017. Fortunately, the announcement came prior to the open enrollment period in the Obamacare exchanges, giving consumers time to find a new plan.

Dwindling options under Obamacare are nothing new. CoOportunity Health, a Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (co-op) created under President Obama’s health care law, sold plans covering 120,000 Nebraskans and Iowans in 2014. It soon became the first co-op to close, leaving consumers without coverage after the open enrollment period had already ended.

Since then, 17 of the 23 co-ops, which received more than $1.7 billion in federal loans, have closed or are in the process of closing. All six of the remaining co-ops are struggling to remain solvent.

In February 2015, as reports removed any last doubts about CoOportunity Health’s impending liquidation, I introduced a bill to prevent taxpayers from having to pay Obamacare’s individual mandate penalties if they lost their insurance in the wake of a co-op closure.

Originally, I designed the legislation to assist Nebraskans and Iowans impacted by CoOportunity Health’s collapse. As the number of failed co-ops across the country began to rise, more Members of Congress took an interest in moving the bill forward. The Ways and Means Committee, on which I serve, passed the bill in early September 2016.

On September 27, the U.S. House passed my bill in a bipartisan vote. The final legislation, known as the CO-OP Consumer Protection Act, exempts taxpayers from the individual mandate for the remaining months within the calendar year in which their co-op insurance plan was cancelled. It applies retroactively to individuals who lost coverage after December 31, 2013, including those in Nebraska and Iowa who lost plans sold by CoOportunity Health.

During debate on the bill in Committee and on the House floor, defenders of Obamacare accused me of trying to undermine the entire health care law. Frankly, I wish the bill could dismantle the unworkable mess known as Obamacare, but this is not its purpose.

It is a simple bill rooted in fairness. Americans who lost their health insurance through no fault of their own deserve certainty rather than having to take their chances within the federal bureaucracy to avoid paying a tax penalty. They need time and flexibility to find a plan which works for their unique circumstances, especially when they face even fewer coverage options and possibly having to start over on their deductibles.

It is absurd for the government to penalize consumers who tried to comply with the law but could not do so due to the law’s own failures.

Obamacare’s cycle of spending and mandates is not sustainable. As we work to bring relief to Americans, we need our next president to work with us on our plan to give Americans more health coverage options while reducing costs and returning decisions to patients and their doctors.