Sen. Sheehy Introduces CHOICE Act to Help Small Businesses Fund Private Health Insurance
The CHOICE Act is currently in the early stages of the legislative process. It was recently introduced in the Senate and sent to the Committee on Finance for review. No further actions are scheduled at this time, and the bill is still waiting for its first committee hearing.
While this bill offers help to small businesses, major changes to health insurance laws usually face a difficult path in a divided Congress without broad support from both parties.
Scores run from -100 (strongly harmful) to +100 (strongly beneficial) for each group, combining impact, certainty, scope, and duration ratings of 1-5. How impact scoring works
The bill specifically allows employers to designate unionized workers covered by collective bargaining agreements as a separate class for CHOICE arrangement purposes. This means an employer could offer a CHOICE arrangement to union members while offering traditional group coverage to other workers, or vice versa. Whether this benefits union workers depends on the specifics negotiated in their contracts.
“Employees who are included in a unit of employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement to which the employer is subject (determined under rules similar to the rules of section 105(h)).”
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.
Introduced in Senate
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
Introduced Sept. 18 by House Republicans, the CHOICE Arrangement Act would rename ICHRAs and grant them the same legal designation as traditional group health plans. The proposal also provides a two-year federal tax credit of up to $100 per month per employee for small businesses.
In a rare rebuke of leadership, the House passed a bill to extend ACA subsidies. The move follows months of GOP efforts to pivot toward 'defined contribution' models like the CHOICE Act, which allows employers to give workers tax-free money for their own plans instead of traditional group coverage.
The House passed legislation to extend expired health care subsidies. The debate highlighted the divide between Democrats' focus on direct subsidies and the Republican 'CHOICE' model, which seeks to shift employer-sponsored insurance toward individual market accounts for small business workers.
No votes recorded for this bill yet.
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
CHOICE Act
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