The rush is on to sign up for health coverage before the New Year, even as the fate of President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act remains unknown.
In Washington State, the deadline to sign up for coverage through the state’s health benefit exchange is midnight Friday, Dec. 23, if you want to start receiving coverage by the first of January.
But what happens if Obamacare is repealed and replaced, under the next administration?
State health officials stress nothing is going to happen overnight, or next year, since plans have already been set for 2017
“In all likelihood, I don’t believe anything will probably happen for at least two to three years,” said Michael Marchand, communications director of Washington’s Health Benefit Exchange, the official state marketplace for insurance under Obamacare.
The big question that remains will Congress and President-elect Donald Trump made good on their campaign promises to repeal and replace the sweeping health care law, or do they decide to amend it?
“Because it’s such a big bill, if you start pulling things out of it, or you stop funding pieces of it, there may be some unintended consequences,” said Marchand. “If you start to disrupt that, much like a game of Jenga, you have to be careful about which piece you pull out because you run the risk of the tower toppling.”
Marchand says the state’s priority remains to make sure the hundreds of thousands of Washington residents who depend on the coverage don’t lose it. Washington’s exchange remains one of the most successful in the nation.
“We don’t want to go backward, and we don’t want to go back to a time when rates were high, and people were uninsured,” said Marchand.
“We’ve got a sizable investment that we’ve made in Washington, and it works here, and we’ve got a good market. Let’s make sure not to throw out the baby with the bath water,” Marchand said of his advice to lawmakers. “Let’s think about a way where we can leverage the infrastructure that already exists at least in our state and make things better in the future.”
While Trump has promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act, he’s also indicated he’s willing to keep the popular parts, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions and keeping adult children of up to 26 on their parents’ plans.
So what does need to change? One of the targets includes rising premiums which health officials attribute in part to market and political uncertainty.
“It’s quite clear that affordability is a huge issue,” said Marchand. “We all agree, even for those getting tax credits today, affordability is a huge issue. How you address that is going to be very interesting. I don’t know if that’s addressed at a federal level, or is it addressed at a state level?”
While some unknowns remain, Marchand says the investment and infrastructure already in place in Washington puts this state in a better position to adapt.
“With great change comes great opportunity. There’s a real opportunity for our state to take steps that can better address how things are done what affordability looks like. Those are conversations we’ve been having ongoing.”
Date: December 27, 2016