Health Insurance Premium Credits in Senate-Passed H.R. 3590

Chris L. Peterson
Specialist in Health Care Financing


This report describes the "premium assistance credits" to help certain individuals pay for health insurance in H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as passed by the Senate on December 24, 2009. Under the bill, state-established "American Health Benefit Exchanges" would have to be established in every state by January 1, 2014. Exchanges would not be insurers, but would provide qualified individuals and small businesses with access to insurers' qualified health plans in a comparable way. Only for purchase of coverage within an exchange, advanceable, refundable premium assistance credits would be available to limit the amount of money some individuals would pay for premiums.1 This report describes who is eligible for the premium credits, how the credits are calculated, and how individuals' income is counted for determining credit eligibility. 

The guideline against which income would be compared to determine credit eligibility is referred to generally as the federal poverty line (FPL). Although the premium credits within exchanges would not be available until 2014 under H.R. 3590, the illustrations provided in this report are based on current (2009) FPLs, to reflect how the premium credits would compare to families' current income levels—essentially, "if the premium credits were available today."


Date of Report: January 5, 2010
Number of Pages: 8
Order Number: R40935
Price: $29.95

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