The Choose Medicare Act would create a new public health insurance option called Medicare Part E, available to individuals, small businesses, and large employers who want an alternative to private insurance. The plan would provide comprehensive coverage including all essential health benefits plus all services covered under traditional Medicare, abortion and reproductive services, and gold-level cost-sharing (meaning insurance covers 80 percent of costs). The bill would receive $2 billion in startup funding for fiscal year 2025, plus additional funds for claims reserves during the initial 90-day period. The legislation also makes several changes to existing health programs: it expands premium tax credits for people buying individual market plans, strengthens cost-sharing reductions for low-income enrollees, caps out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries at $6,700 starting in 2026, establishes a $30 billion reinsurance fund for state individual markets through 2027, requires employers without health insurance to refer workers to insurance navigators, and strengthens federal authority to review and prevent excessive or unfairly discriminatory insurance rates.
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