"I am pleased that we were able to garner overwhelming support in both Houses of Congress for this worthwhile proposal to grant quality health care coverage to the employees of the Nation's religious institutions and their families," said Rep. Andrews.  "Religiously affiliated groups that attempt, in good faith, to provide their employees and the families of those employees with health care coverage should not be subjected to unnecessary restrictions.  This proposal helps these organizations help their employees access healthcare for themselves and their families." 

Andrews plan would allow health care plans offered by religiously affiliated groups to be federally regulated thus exempting them from restrictive requirements of individual states.   Prior to this change, these plans were not subject to federal regulations and interpretations on how they were governed in relation to state regulations varied greatly.  Due to the vague nature of this interpretation religious organizations had a difficult time finding an underwriter for their health care plans.  Insurance providers were skeptical of the risks associated with underwriting these plans because they might be penalized under state law for doing business with an unlicensed insurer.   Andrews plan will solve the problem by:

· Providing that religiously affiliated health plans are to be treated as single-employer plans for purposes of state licensing and solvency requirements;
· Preempting the application of state licensing and solvency laws to self-insured church welfare plans;
· Preserving the application of state insurance law other than licensing and solvency requirements to self-insured church plans;
· Providing that states can enforce against church welfare plans as if they were licensed insurers.

The Senate version of the Church Plan Parity and Entanglement Prevention Act passed the House of Representatives yesterday by voice vote.  It had previously passed the Senate by unanimous consent and is scheduled to be passed on to the President to be signed into law.