The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced on Thursday that more than 6 million people across the country, including more than 6,000 Alaskans, have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, the act that all three GOP senate candidates have vowed to work to repeal if they were elected to office. Enrollment is surging as the initial deadline to sign up approaches.
Candidate Dan Sullivan again sent out a press release, doubling down on his promise to work to repeal ObamaCare if elected.
What would happen to those more than 6 million who have signed up? Who knows? What would it be replaced with? Market based reforms, he said, but he shied from specifics. Tort reform is one such solution that’s often talked about in Republican circles. But most states have enacted some form of tort reform and it hasn’t helped. Alaska passed tort reform in 1997, and according to the American Medical Association, Alaska was one of five states where, between 1998 and 2007, an increase in population did not lead to a proportional increase in the number of doctors.
Buying insurance across state lines, is another GOP idea. It sounds good. Except experts roll their eyes when you mention it. Alaska has the highest medical costs of any place in the country, and we’re a sick bunch to boot. No reputable insurance company based in Virginia, say, or Delaware, who doesn’t already have a presence in this state is going to want to take Alaskans on.
If Sullivan focused on this issue, he might join the group of more thoughtful lawmakers who are talking about finding fixes for the law, fixes that wouldn’t leave those 6 million and many millions more who have yet to sign up, out in the cold.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
Like most Alaskans, I support the repeal of ObamaCare. It is dishonest, poorly conceived and terribly executed. Only the subsidized part of ObamaCare is working, and in that it is entirely adverse selection; the young and healthy haven’t signed on to the program and I would guess it will take the government years to find and fine them. We should ask Begich to pledge that he never again will lie to us about legislation (or anything, perhaps), and that he never again will vote on something (for, or against) that he has not taken the time to read! His father was a man of much more honesty than is the son by the way.
Sullivan obviously doesn’t care about those, including you Amanda, who now have obtained health insurance. He and like thinkers who live in the world of slogans not solutions might want to read the Alaska Dispatch Article about this complex issue of health care as it relates to real Alaskans.. http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140328/one-womans-battle-health-and-affordable-health-insurance
This is the first part of the Dispatch article by Laurel Andrews: “In 2014, Palmer cancer survivor Kristie Besemer became eligible for affordable insurance for the first time in five years, as insurance companies can no longer deny her based on a pre-existing conditions under the Affordable Care Act. Her health insurance won’t last long, though. Next year, she’ll make too little to afford coverage but too much to qualify for Medicaid.”
GOP non-thinking Sullivan is just reading the right-wing “how to run a campaign” play book. Really Sullivan, Alaska deserves better than this self righteous sanctimonious rhetoric. What’s your solution Mr Ohio? My wife can’t get insurance because of a pre-existing condition. I doubt if you care though because your insurance is paid for by the people or your rich Mommy and Daddy. I sort of like you as a candidate before I started reading the rhetoric that spews from your mouth. You are starting to sound as stupid as Treadwell.