Reynolds says the White House has ‘signed off’ on stopgap health insurance plan

Oct. 14--The open enrollment period for Americans to apply for health benefits through the Affordable Care Act begins in just over two weeks, giving Gov. Kim Reynolds' administration a short time frame with which to implement its stopgap insurance proposal.

Because Medica is the only health insurance provider currently committed to selling Iowans individual plans on the federal exchange in 2018, Iowa Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen crafted the short-term stop gap plan to ensure "Iowa's collapsed individual health insurance market can function in 2018."

Ommen and Reynolds blame former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act for "skyrocketing premiums" in Iowa that lead to UnitedHealthcare, Wellmark and Aetna's exit from the ACA marketplace.

The Iowa Insurance Division estimates 72,000 Iowans have health insurance through the Affordable Care Act's individual policies.

"Obamacare is collapsing," Reynolds told The Hawk Eye Thursday during a visit to the Burlington Area YMCA. "It's unaffordable, it's unsustainable, it's unworkable. We've seen our premiums go up 110 percent over the last five years. Since we've see premiums go up, what's happening is healthy people are stepping out and paying the penalty and therefore that's why we're seeing the escalating deductibles and premiums."

Despite an Oct. 5 Washington Post report alleging President Donald Trump was urging his administration to reject Iowa's stopgap proposal, Reynolds said her office has been "in constant communication with the White House."

"The White House has signed off," she said. "We received a letter from them that they had excepted the waiver that we had filed, which started the 30-day public comment period, which was really important."

ACA open enrollment begins nationwide Nov. 1. If the stopgap proposal is approved, Iowans will visit stopgap.iowa.gov to enroll in health insurance, instead of healthcare.gov. The stopgap website currently has information about the proposal, premium estimates and eligibility guidelines.

"This is a short term fix, it's not a long term fix," Reynolds said.

On Thursday, Trump announced he would end cost-sharing subsidies that help low income people purchase health insurance on the federal exchanges. Instead, the president has directed his agencies, through an executive order, to draft insurance plans outside parameters of the ACA that would lower consumer premiums.

"Congress has not appropriated money for CSRs (cost-sharing reductions), and we will discontinue these payments immediately," Eric Hargan, acting Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Seema Verma, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator, said in a statement Thursday.

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