A House Republican has introduced a new, expanded version of his Great American Healthcare proposal.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., filed a Great American Healthcare Act bill earlier this week.
The bill is similar to the Great American Healthcare Plan bill that Burlison introduced in April.
Like the earlier bill, the new Great American Healthcare bill includes many provisions that could make health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements easier to use.
One section, for example, would provide the same bankruptcy protections for HSAs as for retirement accounts. Another would let large employers comply with the Affordable Care Act coverage requirements by contributing to employees’ HSAs.
Transparency sections would set new rules for how medical labs, medical imaging services providers and health plan network administrators disclose their compensation arrangements.
The new version of the Burlison bill would:
◆ Let a taxpayer use up to $5,000 in cash from an HSA to start a child’s Trump account.
◆ Let a family roll the cash from an HSA into a Trump account when the HSA holder dies.
◆ Change the rules that the Federal Reserve banks use to pay interest on reserves placed in the banks by commercial banks, savings banks, credit unions and other depository institutions.
Burlison has also rounded up an endorsement for his package from the National Federation of Independent Business.
What it means: Burlison seems to think that the House could pass health-related legislation this year.
The backdrop: Both the House and the Senate have been moving ahead with efforts to pass health care and health insurance bills.
Parts of the federal government could shut down normal operations Sept. 30.
Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats have created a continuing resolution, or short-term funding bill, that could keep the federal government operating normally until Dec. 11.
The Senate and the House still have to approve the resolution.
The lawmakers working on the health bills may hope that they can move the bills through Congress by using the continuing resolution legislation as a tugboat.