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Congress Passes Revision to Affordable Care Act

The New York Times reported this week that Congress has passed legislation to amend the Affordable Care Act with the goal of protecting midsize businesses with 51-100 employees from increases in health insurance costs. These costs would result from the new requirements set to take effect on January 1, 2016. Currently, small employers, which typically are defined by states as consisting of 50 or less employees, are protected these the Affordable Care Act requirements.  The revision allows states to expand the definition of "small group" to include businesses 51-100 employees, protecting them from the new provisions as well. This act, known as Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act (PACE), H.R. 1624, was introduced by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Kentucky), and the Senate version (S. 1099) was introduced by Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) and Senator Jean Shaheen (D-NH) earlier this year. Congress.gov has the full text of the bill is available along with the status, CRS Summary, list of actions related to the bill, and the CBO cost estimates.

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