As discussed in our previous blog article, earlier this year, Mary Landrieu (D-LA) had submitted legislation (S. 2068) to try to help protect health insurance agent and broker jobs by attempting to exclude independent health insurance producer compensation from the medical loss ratio (MLR) requirements in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). On April 17^th, Landrieu, along with cosponsors Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) re-filed the bill, now titled S. 2288. There was some concern from members of the coalition group regarding the definition of remuneration in the original bill submitted, S. 2068. Rather than making these changes through the legislative process with amendments, a new bill with the corrected language was submitted.

The re-submitting of the bill has several more senators expressing their interest in cosponsoring the bill now that it has been re-filed. The sponsors are close to gaining the support of several Democratic offices to add to several Republicans that express interest.

What does this mean to you?

As S. 2288 continues to gain support, H.R. 1206 has recently closed on 200 cosponsors and is aggressively pursuing the target of 218, half of the chamber’s support, and will therefore qualify for a discharge petition. The S. 2288 legislation will continue to target minor changes based on the response to the MLR requirements and are therefore still not identical to H.R. 1206. If commissions become exempt from the MLR, it could provide state insurance regulators with greater flexibility when it comes to medical loss implementation.