Healthcare enrollment not slowing despite repeal efforts

Jan. 26--He had heard of the efforts to get rid of it, but Michael Walton still showed up at an event Wednesday to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

"Just being hopeful," he said, "and the fact that I need to see a physician."

Walton, 30, runs his own business, 828 United Marketing, which does silk-screening and design for companies and schools, so the chance to get health insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace was important, particularly with his aching knees.

"More preventative (care) at this point than anything," he said.

"Which is just as important," said senior navigator Kate Malone of Insure Georgia, who helped Walton find a policy with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia for less than $5 a month after subsidies.

Open enrollment continues through Jan. 31, and Insure Georgia said that people who need coverage should still sign up because the coverage will continue despite the efforts for repeal. At the events like the one Wednesday at Belle Terrace Presbyterian Church in Augusta, people are told upfront about the efforts to repeal the law, said Marc Jenkins, regional outreach coordinator for Insure Georgia.

"But the good thing is that all of the contracts have been signed throughout this year," he said. "So all of the coverage that is available through the Marketplace, they will run throughout this entire year. What we're telling people is you should still go ahead and get that coverage taken care of and then as the changes come along, we'll address those."

In fact, Jenkins said he doesn't expect any changes would begin until 2018 due to the complexity of repealing and replacing the current law. Larry Levitt, senior vice president for special initiatives at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said it is likely to be a lengthy process. Of the replacement proposals put forth so far, and by the executive order signed by President Trump, states are going to be given greater flexibility to regulate insurance and benefits and in particular to design new Medicaid programs funded by block grants. Yet many of those states have part-time legislatures and will need time to design and implement those new programs, he said.

"There could be a substantial amount of time -- years, not months -- to transition" to the new systems, Levitt said. There is also the question of revenue, because repealing the law also eliminates many of the taxes and other revenues that helped fund it, he said.

"In health care, you always need to follow the money," Levitt said.

Whatever comes next, Insure Georgia will help people get coverage through that program, Jenkins said. In fact, he believes the non-partisan group's input could help make it better, he said.

"We want to take a proactive approach. We want to be on the front end of working with local and federal lawmakers" on a replacement plan, Jenkins said. "We're actually optimistic that there are so many things that will be fixed and also that hopefully the new system will be accessible for even more people than this one was."

Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213 or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com

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