Veterans win free preventive care—no more copays for screenings, vaccines, meds
H.R. 1644 — Copay Fairness for Veterans Act · Filed by Lauren Underwood (D-IL) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 27, 2025 · Markup held
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill eliminates copayments for veterans receiving preventive health services through the VA, including preventive medications, hospital care, medical services, evidence-based screenings rated A or B by the Preventive Services Task Force, CDC-recommended immunizations, and women's preventive care including contraceptives. Veterans will no longer pay out-of-pocket costs for these services.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is straightforward: it removes copayment barriers to preventive care for veterans. This is a direct benefit expansion, not a regulatory change or appropriation rider.
What the text implies
- Preventive care copay elimination may increase utilization of preventive services, potentially reducing downstream acute-care costs for the VA system if early detection prevents more expensive interventions.
- Definition of 'preventive health services' is anchored to external standards (USPSTF ratings, ACIP recommendations, FDA approvals, HRSA guidelines as of Dec 30, 2022), meaning the scope of covered services will evolve as those external bodies update their recommendations without requiring legislative amendment.
- Women's contraceptive coverage is explicitly broadened to include any FDA-approved contraceptive and related care, not limited to a specific formulary, which may create ongoing cost exposure for the VA.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Veterans gain direct financial relief by eliminating copayments for preventive health services, reducing barriers to early detection and disease prevention. The bill expands access to evidence-based preventive care without imposing new costs on the veteran population.
Who stands to gain
- veterans (direct beneficiaries of copay elimination)
Named in the bill
Department of Veterans Affairs, United States Preventive Services Task Force, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Resources and Services Administration, Food and Drug Administration
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 5 Democrats.
- Feb 27, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 27, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Veterans' Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs”
- Mar 25, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $509,800 in lobbying spend. A filing names 139 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Lauren Underwood, the sponsor, reported $424,700 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Disabled American Veterans — $310,451 on 2 filings
- Paralyzed Veterans of America — $199,349 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 21, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,029 characters) on Aug 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 21, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Veterans win free preventive care—no more copays for screenings, vaccines, meds” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr1644 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.