President Trump’s repeated efforts to derail Obamacare worries Sonoma County health care leaders
Local and state health officials, and now the newly sworn-in
Unless more steps are taken to protect the Affordable Care Act, area medical providers say they could begin to see an increasing number of uninsured patients and multimillion dollar annual losses because of unpaid patient medical bills and charity care.
"It's a game of whack-a-mole; we're trying to make the law work in
Wright and others say the effects of
According to Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange, the number of new enrollees statewide has declined slightly, even as the tally of people renewing their medical coverage plans through Covered California has remained high. That may change, however, because the agency said late last week it was still processing last-minute enrollees who had until Friday to complete application forms.
"We are seeing strong renewal numbers, but we're seeing a slight decrease in the number of new consumers signing up," said
Scullary said any drop in enrollment could affect the "risk pool," especially if those who are opting out are younger people. "If it's determined that primarily healthy people left, that could have an impact on premiums," he said.
Another sign the health care law could be weakening is a recent drop in the number of people who are enrolled in
The president's actions against the Affordable Care Act include: the creation of short-term, low-cost individual health plans critics say would destabilize the law; the elimination of the individual mandate, making it easier for people to avoid the federal tax penalty for going without health insurance; and ending federal cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies who offer affordable plans to low-income Americans.
In response, last year the
In December, a
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