Lauren’s number one priority in Congress is ensuring access to high-quality, affordable health care for our families and eliminating cost barriers to care.
Ensure access to high-quality, affordable health care and eliminate cost barriers to care.
Occurrences
Lauren’s number one priority in Congress is ensuring access to high-quality, affordable health care for our families and eliminating cost barriers to care.
We must work to expand coverage and make affordable health care a guarantee.
Evidence
"As part of her work to eliminate cost barriers to health care, Lauren wrote the Health Care Affordability Act with her constituents top of mind. Signed into law as part of the American Rescue Plan, and later extended through the Inflation Reduction Act, the Health Care Affordability Act limits the cost of health care coverage for people who choose Marketplace plans to eight and a half percent or less of their income."
The law sets temporary premium percentages of 0.0% to 8.5% and states that households at 400.0% of the poverty line and higher pay 8.5% of income for 2021 and 2022 in the premium tax credit formula.
The law extends the ARPA premium-tax-credit changes, including the 0.0% to 8.5% income percentages, through tax year 2025.
"Ms. Underwood ... introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means" and the bill title is "Health Care Affordability Act of 2025."
Rep. Underwood said Black maternal health legislation is meant to address disparities and that "every woman, no matter her ZIP Code, has access to quality, affordable care." She also said the caucus will continue to fight for policies that "center equity, protect access, and save lives."
The Black Maternal Health Caucus said it secured over $363 million for maternal health priorities in the FY25 appropriations law, including $72 million in Momnibus-based funding. Underwood said she fought to ensure evidence-based maternal health priorities were funded and that "our work is far from done." The release says the funding supports better access to maternal care services and high-quality care.
Assessments
Underwood materially advanced concrete federal health-care affordability policy: she wrote and promoted the Health Care Affordability Act, whose core marketplace premium cap was enacted in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and extended by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 while she was serving in Congress. That directly reduced cost barriers for ACA marketplace consumers. She also helped secure maternal health funding and continued sponsoring affordability legislation. However, the promise is broad: ensuring access to high-quality, affordable care and eliminating cost barriers across the health system was not fully achieved. The record supports meaningful delivery on major components, not complete fulfillment.
Underwood helped advance concrete health-care affordability legislation that was enacted through the American Rescue Plan and extended by the Inflation Reduction Act, capping ACA Marketplace benchmark premium contributions at 8.5% of income for eligible consumers and reducing a major cost barrier. However, the promise was broad: ensuring access to high-quality, affordable care and eliminating cost barriers generally. The evidence supports meaningful delivery on Marketplace premium affordability, not elimination of all health-care cost barriers or universal access to high-quality affordable care.