Bill > HR543

This bill, the Health Care Choice Act of 2015, proposes to repeal certain provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, effectively restoring previous laws. Its core provision amends the Public Health Service Act to allow health insurance issuers to designate a "primary state" whose laws will govern individual health insurance coverage offered not only in that primary state but also in any other "secondary state." This means that if an insurance issuer complies with the conditions set forth in this bill, it would be exempt from many of the laws of the secondary states where it sells coverage, provided the coverage and issuer meet specific requirements. The bill also grants the primary state sole jurisdiction to enforce its laws related to this coverage in both primary and secondary states, though secondary states retain limited enforcement powers for certain issues like fraud and unfair claims practices. Finally, it mandates that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) study the impact of these changes on various aspects of health insurance, including coverage availability, costs, and pre-existing conditions, and report its findings annually to Congress for five years.