Local officials ready for Obamacare Tuesday launch [Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, Calif.]

Sept. 29--Editors note: The Appeal-Democrat is running a series of stories looking at the local effects of the Affordable Care Act. Today's story looks at the politics that are continuing right up to Tuesday's open enrollment.

Only two days away from the start of open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act, the health care reform bill remains as politically divisive as it was when it was approved.

With some conservative Republicans pushing to defund the act at the 11th hour, local counties offices are still poised to start enrolling residents beginning Tuesday.

While the prevailing thinking is the defunding won't happen, the question remains that if funding were eliminated, what would happen to the Covered California call centers? And what would be the status of 21 new Yuba County employees and 28 Sutter County workers whose salaries are being paid for by the Act?

Yuba and Sutter counties are taking their cue from the state.

"Yuba County is in the same boat as every other county in California," said Russ Brown, spokesman for the county Health and Human Services department.

"We have set up a call center and established processes to meet the requirements of state legislation.

"If there are any changes, we would still continue to operate and maintain staffing levels until such a time as the state changes the requirements," Brown said.

Sutter County health and human services officials could not be reached Friday afternoon.

The Republican-controlled House has approved a temporary spending bill until a budget can be passed for the fiscal year that begins Tuesday. That bill would allow the government to keep running into the next fiscal year even though a budget has yet to be passed.

But the House version of the bill also imposed a one-year delay of key parts of the Affordable Care Act. The Senate was expected to vote Monday on the same bill and will likely reject it, leaving a stalemate.

What happens after that is anybody's guess.

"If you talked to the 435 members of Congress, none of them could tell you what is going to happen," area Congressman John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, said on Friday. "I just don't know. It depends on what the Republican caucus is going to do."

Garamendi said the likelihood is that open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act will start as scheduled, though counties won't know for sure until Tuesday.

"All the work we accomplished up to this point to prepare for health care reform locally has been done under the requirements of state law," Brown said. "So the costs are fully covered."

The idea of defunding the Affordable Care Act isn't really practical, Garamendi said.

"I don't see it happening," he said. "The president has been very clear. He won't sign it if it includes defunding the Affordable Care Act."

Garamendi noted that most of the act has already been funded, including the hiring of the Yuba and Sutter employees. Affordable Care Act funding was also used to pay for remodeling and equipment costs to set up the call centers.

"The exchanges will go forward," Garamendi said.

The bigger chance is that the government will shut down on Tuesday while enrollment begins for the Affordable Care Act, Garamendi said.

CONTACT reporter Eric Vodden at 749-4769.___

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