In October 2017, President Trump issued an Executive Order (E.O. 13813) asking the Departments of the Treasury, Health and Human Services, and Labor to expand the usability of Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs). The new rules creating the ICHRA were released in June 2019.

Although ICHRA is new, it represents an evolution of another HRA called a Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (QSEHRA) that was created by the Obama Administration a few years earlier.

The ICHRA rules went into effect January 1, 2020.

For a more in-depth explanation of where and how the new HRA originated, read our in-depth ICHRA Guide.