Congress is out of session until Monday, November 9 for the midterm campaign. No new roll-call votes until then; the last were the House on Sep 16 and the Senate on Sep 30.

S. 3167 · 118th Congress · Health

MEWA Act

Died in committee1.5k words Introduced Oct 30, 2023 · Latest action Oct 30, 2023

FollowRead the text
How far it has goneStopped at 2 of 6 · Died in committee
  1. IntroducedOct 30, 2023 Done
  2. CommitteeDied Jan 3, 2025 Stopped here
  3. Senate floorNot yet Not reached yet
  4. House floorNot yet Not reached yet
  5. Chambers agreeNot yet Not reached yet
  6. PresidentNot yet Not reached yet

What it does

This bill provides statutory authority for the treatment of association health plans (AHPs) as single, large employer health plans for purposes of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Under AHPs, groups of individuals or small employers join together to purchase health insurance coverage. AHPs were historically subject to the market requirements for individual and small group health plans. In 2018, the Department of Labor issued regulations that allowed an AHP to be considered a single, large employer under ERISA if certain conditions are met. The regulations have been subject to litigation, which is still ongoing.

The bill provides that a group of employers is treated as a single, large employer for the purpose of establishing an AHP if the group, among other listed criteria (1) has been in existence for at least two years and was formed for a purpose other than offering health insurance, (2) meets any criteria set by Labor in a prior advisory opinion, or (3) meets any other criteria set by Labor through regulations.

Additionally, the bill establishes rules for AHPs to set premium rates and prohibits AHPs from discriminating in coverage based on health status-related factors or denying coverage based on preexisting conditions.

Congressional Research Service · summary of “Introduced in Senate” version · Oct 30, 2023

Who lobbies on it

No lobbying filing on file names S. 3167.

Organizations that named S. 3167 in a quarterly lobbying report. Covers organizations with a PAC on file; reports from organizations without one aren’t loaded yet. Spend is the organization’s total across all issues: reports don’t split spending by bill. Source: Senate lobbying disclosures (LD-2) from lda.gov; quotes are word for word from the “specific lobbying issues” field.

Actions

2 actions · newest first
  1. Oct 30, 2023Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  2. Oct 30, 2023Introduced in Senate