WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons (both D-Del.) praised the House of Representatives’ passage of legislation championed by U.S. Rep. John Carney (D-Del.) to improve the Affordable Care Act, protect jobs in Delaware, and ensure access to quality health insurance coverage for expatriates working in the U.S. and abroad. The Expatriate Coverage Clarification Act(H.R. 4144) was approved by a bipartisan vote of 268 to 150. The legislation clarifies that the Affordable Care Act does not apply to expatriate health insurance plans. It ensures that U.S. based expatriate insurance carriers can compete on a level playing field with their foreign competitors and that American jobs stay here in America. The measure now moves to the Senate for consideration. Senators Carper and Coons have pledged to continue working closely with the Obama Administration, stakeholders and their congressional colleagues to pass the measure in the Senate.

“For the last several years, I have worked tirelessly, along with the rest of the Delaware congressional delegation, to improve the quality of our health care system, curb health care costs, and provide coverage to more Americans,” Senator Carper said. “I was proud to play a key role in crafting the Affordable Care Act that furthered these objectives, and I remain a strong supporter of the law. However, I have also said that the Affordable Care Act is not written in stone, and we should work together to make common-sense changes to improve and strengthen the law moving forward. For more than three years, our delegation has worked closely with our congressional colleagues, the administration and stakeholders to improve the law’s treatment of expatriate health insurance plans‎. Rep. Carney and his staff have done a remarkable job to address these issues in the Expatriate Coverage Clarification Act, and I congratulate them on the successful vote in the House today. These tweaks to the Affordable Care Act will improve the law by ensuring expatriates still get access to quality health plans while also giving U.S. insurers the flexibility they need to compete in the global expat insurance market. In short, this is a common-sense bill that will preserve jobs in Delaware, California and other states, and I pledge to work with Sen. Coons and my colleagues in the Senate to get it across the finish line.

“The Affordable Care Act is doing a lot of good for a lot of Delawareans, but it isn’t perfect and needs to be repaired,” Senator Coons said. “As unintended consequences arise, it is Congress’ responsibility to fix them. For three years, Senator Carper, Congressman Carney and I have done everything we could to resolve an issue involving health plans for people living abroad in a way that would prevent Cigna from moving jobs servicing those plans overseas. It was important, as well, to ensure that the fix did not make it harder for the Affordable Care Act to continue delivering on its promise of expanding access to quality care for millions of Americans, and I’m grateful to the Administration for its partnership throughout this process. Tuesday’s bipartisan vote in the House was an important and significant step forward in the effort to keep those jobs in Delaware. Congressman Carney worked relentlessly to get this bill onto the floor and to win its passage in the House, and now Senator Carper and I will do the same in the Senate. We are determined to find a fair and reasonable solution that saves these jobs.”

Together and individually, the Delegation and their staffs have worked extensively to find commonsense solutions to improve the Affordable Care Act and address its impact on expatriate health insurance plans, including participating in well over a hundred conference calls and meetings with leaders at Cigna, officials at the Internal Revenue Service, Treasury Department, Health and Human Services, the White House, and other relevant stakeholders over the last three years.