The Senate put a direct primary care provision back in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act tax package.
A full-text version posted Saturday by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, includes direct primary care provision.
Members of a direct primary care program pay monthly, quarterly or annual dues for access to a doctor's office.
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Members of the Senate today voted 50-50 for the package. Vice President JD Vance cast a vote in favor of the package to break the tie.
All Democrats and independents who voted opposed the package, and three Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — also voted against it.
The direct primary care provision: The direct primary care provision in the Senate tax package would let owners of health savings accounts use HSA cash to pay direct primary care program membership fees.
The limit would be $150 in HSA cash per month for individual direct primary care dues and $300 per month for DPC dues for two or more members of a household.
The Senate Finance Committee and other Senate committees had left the direct primary care provision out of the tax package section drafts they had posted earlier in June.
Related: Senate Finance tax bill drafters leave out direct primary care
Although the full-text version of the package that Graham posted does include the direct primary care provision, the section-by-section summaries posted on Graham's area on the Senate Budget Committee website do not mention the provision.
One Big Beautiful Bill Act basics: Republican congressional leaders had originally hoped to complete work on a comprehensive tax and budget package by July 4. President Donald Trump said today, however, that "it's very hard to July 4th" and that the new goal is "somewhere around there," according to Politico.
The current version of the package would extend the temporary tax changes, such as an increase in the federal estate tax deductible, included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
Other package provisions could create new tax breaks, such as federal income tax exemptions for income from tips and overtime pay.
To pay for the tax break extensions and new tax breaks, the package would tighten Medicaid, Medicare and Affordable Care Act eligibility and benefits provisions.
House OBBBA v. Senate OBBBA: The version of the tax package approved by the House in May included a total of 14 provisions related to health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements.
At this point, the direct primary care provision appears to be the only health account provision from the House version that has made it into the Senate version.
Senate OBBBA process: The Senate held a "vote-a-rama" before voting on final consideration of the bill, meaning that all senators could propose amendments to the package.
Most of the many amendments considered were rejected. None of the amendments seem to have involved issues directly related to employer-sponsored health benefits.
One that passed, by a 99-1 vote, eliminated a provision in the Senate version of OBBBA that could have some types of state efforts to regulate artificial intelligence systems.
A House "AI regulation moratorium" provision would keep states from imposing many new kinds of restrictions, taxes or fees on AI for 10 years.
The House version includes many exclusions, and it's not clear how much it would affect state efforts to regulate use of AI in insurance and employee benefits, but the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the National Council of Insurance Legislators and the American InsureTech Council oppose the House version.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., tried to replace the House state AI regulation moratorium with a compromise version that would last for just five years and include more exceptions, such as an exception for regulations concerning children's safety.
But Blackburn had a hard time getting broad support for the compromise state AI regulation moratorium effort, and she ended up proposing that the state AI regulation provision be cut from the package text.
The future: Senate leaders must now work with House leaders to come up with a version of the OBBBA package that can get through the House.
The House might simply approve the version that passed in the Senate, but House leaders could ask for amendments. If the House insists on amendments, the Senate would then have to pass the final, amended version of the package.
The nature of the process means that health benefits provisions could still get into the OBBBA package as the House and Senate try to iron out the differences between their versions of the package.
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