Congress lets employers strip health coverage workers depend on
H.R. 9798 — Employer Health Plan Flexibility Act · Filed by Rick Allen (R-GA) · Introduced Jul 21, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill exempts employer-sponsored health plans from the Affordable Care Act's requirement to cover ten Essential Health Benefits (such as hospitalization, prescription drugs, mental health services, and maternity care). Employers can now drop these coverages while remaining subject to other federal rules like mental health parity and nondiscrimination. Employers must disclose annually which benefits they are not covering.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a carve-out from federal health-coverage mandates. It does not expand choice or competition; it permits employers to unilaterally reduce the scope of coverage workers receive, shifting cost and risk downstream to employees and their families.
What the text implies
- Workers in employer plans cannot shop for alternative coverage to restore dropped benefits — they are captive to their employer's plan design. The bill does not create a market; it creates a coverage gap.
- The disclosure requirement (Section 4) is a transparency measure but does not grant workers a right to refuse the plan or demand coverage. It is a label on a reduced product, not a remedy.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
self-insured employers (cost savings from dropped coverage); large employers with bargaining power to redesign plans; health plan administrators and consultants (plan redesign services)