S. 1201 – Health Care Options for All Act

AI-Generated Summary

Updated April 15, 2026 at 3:45 PM UTC

The Health Care Options for All Act would give people who live in parts of a state where no qualified health plans are offered on the state’s health insurance exchange a way to get coverage. It requires the federal government to set up a system that lets those individuals enroll in the small‑group market through the District of Columbia’s exchange, the same marketplace used by members of Congress and their staff. The bill also makes sure they receive the same premium tax credits and cost‑sharing reductions they would have gotten if a qualified plan were available in their own state. This affects residents of such “unserved” rating areas who are otherwise eligible to buy exchange coverage.

Key Provisions

The Secretary, with Treasury and OPM, must create a mechanism within three months so people in areas without qualified exchange plans can enroll in health insurance through the DC exchange.
Eligibility is limited to individuals who could buy insurance on their state’s exchange but live in a county or rating area where the Secretary has certified no qualified plan is offered.
Enrollees using the DC exchange will be eligible for the same premium tax credits and cost‑sharing reductions they would have received if they could enroll in their state’s exchange.

Legislative Activity

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1 earlier action

SenateIntro Referral Latest Action

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Finance Committee

May 22, 2017

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SenateIntro Referral

Introduced in Senate

May 22, 2017

SenateIntro Referral

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Finance Committee

May 22, 2017

Floor Debate

2 members

What members said about S. 1201 on the floor

1 Republican1 Democrat

Sen. John BarrassoR-WY · Jun 28, 2017

Mr. President, reserving my right to object, before coming to the Senate, I practiced medicine in Wyoming for over 20 years. That is why I am passionate about improving the quality of care and…

Mr. President, reserving my right to object, before coming to the Senate, I practiced medicine in Wyoming for over 20 years. That is why I am passionate about improving the quality of care and lowering the cost of healthcare. Unfortunately, we know healthcare is in a crisis. Premiums and deductibles are skyrocketing, and insurance is unaffordable.

It is interesting to hear the comments when we are talking about the sabotaging of the marketplace. It is ObamaCare that has sabotaged the marketplace. The Presiding Officer knows fully well, as do I, that when you look at the co-ops that were set up all around the country under ObamaCare, one after another went bankrupt--belly-up, shut down--and left people uncovered. That was before we even knew who the Republican nominee for President was going to be in 2016. That is ObamaCare. That was at a time when all there was out there was the Obama healthcare law. One co-op after another failed, and it cost the taxpayers billions of dollars--guaranteed loans that will never be paid back.

Just like the bill we just discussed, this proposal is an important acknowledgment by the Senator from Missouri. It is the acknowledgment that ObamaCare's collapsing insurance markets are affecting people all around the country. In Missouri, 18,000 people in 25 counties will have zero options on the ObamaCare exchanges--zero. They have been promised that their preexisting conditions will be covered, and no one is selling insurance in those counties in that State. They have basically been misled by ObamaCare that they will be covered for preexisting conditions. In the Republican plan, what we are doing is covering people who have preexisting conditions.

Let me say again that next year thousands of people in Missouri will have no insurance company that will be willing to sell insurance in the ObamaCare exchange. It is clear that insurance markets in Missouri are collapsing, as they are all around the country.

This bill is not the solution. Instead of giving people more choices in Missouri, what does the bill do? It sends people to Washington, DC, to buy their health insurance--a typical solution from the other side of the aisle. Instead of empowering States with more flexibility and the authority at the State level, they think once again that Washington knows best. They think that the people they represent would rather call a bureaucrat who is hundreds of miles away than talk with local people who live and work in their communities.

The simple fact is that ObamaCare is not providing patients with the increased choices they were promised. We need to rescue people in Missouri and across the country from ObamaCare. This bill is the wrong approach.

I object.

Sen. Claire McCaskillD-MO · Jun 28, 2017

Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question? Mr. President, the next time I will know, when he is giving a speech, before he objects, to start then. I am pretty sure that his staff in…

Bill Text

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Introduced in SenateIssued May 22, 2017

II

115th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 1201

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

May 22, 2017

Mrs. McCaskill introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

A BILL

To allow individuals living in areas without qualified health plans offered through an Exchange to have similar access to health insurance coverage as Members of Congress and congressional staff.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Health Care Options for All Act.

2.

Access to coverage for individuals in areas without any available Exchange plans

Part 2 of subtitle D of title I of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 18031 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

1314.

Access to coverage for individuals in areas without any available Exchange plans

(a)

In general

(1)

Coverage through DC SHOP Exchange

Not later than 3 months after the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, shall establish a mechanism to ensure that, for any plan year beginning on or after the date described in subsection (c), any individual described in paragraph (2) may enroll in health insurance coverage in the small group market through the Exchange operating in the District of Columbia, including the health insurance coverage that is available to Members of Congress and congressional staff (as defined in section 1312(d)(3)(D)).

(2)

Individual described

An individual described in this paragraph is any individual who—

(A)

is eligible to purchase health insurance coverage through the Exchange operating in the State of residence of the individual; and

(B)

resides in a rating area or county in which the Secretary certifies that no qualified health plan is offered through an Exchange established under this title.

(b)

Premium assistance tax credits and cost-Sharing

Any individual described in subsection (a)(2) who enrolls in health insurance coverage through the Exchange operating in the District of Columbia pursuant to subsection (a)(1) shall be eligible for any premium tax credit under section 36B of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or reduced cost-sharing under section 1402, that the individual would otherwise be eligible for if enrolling in health insurance coverage in the individual market through the Exchange operating in the State of the individual.

(c)

Date described

The date described in this subsection is the date on which the Secretary establishes the mechanism under subsection (a)(1).

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