Finkenauer Votes to Strengthen ACA, Lower Drug Prices, and Pass Bipartisan Permanent Extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer (IA-01) voted on Monday to strengthen the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Enhancement Act.

The legislation lowers health insurance costs, allows negotiations for lower prescription drug prices, and encourages states to expand Medicaid coverage while permanently authorizing a critical children’s health insurance program.

"The Affordable Care Act is a transformational law that has improved the lives of millions of Americans, despite a decade of partisan attacks against it,” Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer said. “The package we passed today builds on that success by further driving down costs and expanding access. It expands coverage, reduces prescription drug prices and strengthens protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”  

“I am proud to have joined my colleagues in passing this historic legislation that will provide financial relief and better health to so many hardworking Iowa families,” Finkenauer said.

Package Includes Finkenauer’s CARING for Kids Act

In a major win for Iowa and American families, Finkenauer’s bipartisan Comprehensive Access to Robust Insurance Now Guaranteed (CARING) for Kids Act is included in the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Enhancement Act.

Finkenauer introduced the legislation with Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan (FL-16) earlier this year to permanently fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). CHIP provides health insurance to 10 million children of lower-income families that do not qualify for Medicaid.

For decades, CHIP has been funded for limited periods at a time, and Congress has had to proactively vote every few years to continue providing coverage to vulnerable children. In 2017, lawmakers allowed the funding to lapse, in some cases preventing eligible children from enrolling in coverage.

The CARING for Kids Act will ensure that never happens again.

"For too long, D.C. politicians have used kids’ health care as a bargaining chip in their political games,” Congresswoman Finkenauer said. “No more. This program must be permanently funded so that gamesmanship never threatens our children’s health. And with the inclusion of the CARING for Kids Act in the Affordable Care Enhancement Act, it will be."

"We advanced this bill on a bipartisan basis, and I look forward to continuing to work with my Republican friends to make sure this commonsense bill becomes law."

In Iowa, CHIP is offered through the Healthy and Well Kids in Iowa program (Hawki), which covers roughly 75,000 Iowa children, with no family paying more than $40 a month for coverage.

Background on Patient Protection & Affordable Care Enhancement Act

The Patent Protection & Affordable Care Enhancement Act:

• Significantly increases the ACA’s affordability subsidies to be more generous and cover more middle-class families. For the first time, no person will have to pay more than 8.5 percent of their income for a benchmark silver plan in the ACA marketplaces, and many Americans will see their premiums cut in half or more:
  • A family of four earning $40,000 would save nearly $1,600 in premiums each year.
  • A 64-year-old earning $57,420 would save more than $8,700 in premiums each year.
  • A single adult with income of $31,900 would see premiums cut in half.
  • An adult earning $19,140 would see premiums cut to zero, saving $800 dollars a year.
• Negotiates for lower prescription drug prices, delivering the power to negotiate lower drug prices so that Americans no longer have to pay more for our medicines than Big Pharma charges for the same drugs overseas. According to a new report from Patients for Affordable Drugs, from January to June, 245 drugs were subject to an average price increase of more than 20 percent.  Of these drugs with price hikes by Big Pharma, more than 75 percent directly relate to the COVID-19 crisis, including 30 drugs that are currently in clinical trials for their effect against the virus.
• Expands coverage, pressing Medicaid expansion hold-out states with new carrots and sticks to adopt coverage for the 4.8 million Americans cruelly excluded from coverage, while restoring the outreach and advertising funding that the Trump Administration has slashed to prevent Americans from learning about the affordable health coverage available to them under the ACA.
• Combats inequity in health coverage faced by communities of color, expanding more affordable coverage to vulnerable populations and fighting the maternal mortality epidemic by requiring states to extend Medicaid or CHIP coverage to new mothers for a full year post-partum.
• Cracks down on junk plans & strengthens protections for people with pre-existing conditions, reversing the Trump Administration’s expansion of junk health insurance plans that do not provide coverage for essential medical treatments and drugs and that are allowed to discriminate against people with pre-existing medical conditions.