HARRISBURG — A party-line vote of members of a Pennsylvania House committee advanced a group of bills intended to enshrine certain protection from the federal Affordable Care Act into state law but revealed a new voting pattern among opponents.
Lawmakers appointed to the House Insurance Committee cast four separate 14-12 votes on Monday with all Democrats in favor and all Republicans opposed. All four bills advanced to the House floor for further consideration.
The bills propose to allow parents the option to maintain insurance coverage for their adult children until they reach the age of 26, prohibit insurers from setting annual and lifetime limits of a plan’s coverage, prohibit coverage denial for pre-existing conditions and maintain access to preventative health care without cost-sharing for patients.
Each bill includes a provision in which the protections would be enacted should Congress repeal the ACA, the executive branch refuses to enforce or acts to repeal the respective regulations, or the provisions are overturned in court.
“This provision helped millions of Pennsylvanians access no-additional-cost preventive health care like well-woman visits, colon cancer screenings, childhood vaccines, contraception, depression and anxiety screenings, and so much more,” Majority Chair Rep. Perry Warren wrote in a co-sponsorship memo for the latter bill, stating that a pending case with the U.S. Supreme Court could see the preventative care provision overturned and risk potential early detection of breast or colon cancer, for example.
The three former initiatives all were introduced last session and each advanced through committee and, ultimately, the full House last October but expired at session’s end with a lack of action by the state Senate which had little time left at that point to act.
Just a handful of Republicans voted against the measures last fall at the committee level and a minority of the party’s members opposed the proposals during the floor votes.
The party-line voting on Monday, however, reflects a very different attitude among House Republicans this session. A spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus said the bill language hasn't changed.
“Mr. Chairman, all of the Republicans will vote ‘no,’” Rep. Tina Pickett, R-Bradford/Wyoming, the committee’s minority chair, said upon the first vote. She repeated a similar refrain three more times.
“I will indicate that all Democratic members vote ‘yes,’” Warren, a Democrat from Bucks County, said ahead of the initial vote and himself said roughly the same as the remaining measures advanced through the committee.
Pickett voted last fall to support the measures — both in committee and on the House floor. On Monday, through a spokesperson, she declined comment on the shifting voting pattern.
The ACA is landmark legislation of former President Barack Obama’s two terms in The White House. More than 21.4 million people in the U.S. obtained insurance coverage in 2024 through the Health Insurance Marketplace created by “Obamacare” including more than 434,000 in Pennsylvania, according to the nonprofit KFF, a health policy organization.
The law has been targeted for revisions or repeals by congressional Republicans over the years but with President Donald Trump’s administration’s fervent focus on cost-cutting, potential changes intended to end improper enrollments and save an estimated $11 to $14 billion are being pursued.
Among the changes sought is an end to expanded coverage implemented by the Biden administration for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, undocumented immigrants with protections against deportation. The expansion is under a current court challenge.
“Sex-trait modifications” would no longer be covered as an essential health benefit, a special enrollment period for income-eligible enrollees would be eliminated and enrollment verification would be strengthened, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced this month as part of its proposed rule changes.
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