Hawaii bills aim to save best parts of Affordable Care Act
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sowena Achen held her nephew Makana Albert while his mother signed him up for insurance inside a church building on Monday in Honolulu. Faced with uncertainty about the federal health care law, Hawaii lawmakers are introducing bills to bring what they believe are the best parts of the Affordable Care Act into state law.
HONOLULU >> In a modest church building in urban Honolulu, mother Mona Aliksa waited to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.
A small team of government and social service workers at folding tables helped Aliksa and others enroll in health plans Monday, despite uncertainty about whether President Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress would completely repeal the law.
“I’m worried,” Aliksa said. “I have girls to take care of.”
Concerned about the dissolution of the Affordable Care Act, Hawaii lawmakers are introducing bills to merge into state law the consumer protections they consider the best parts of the federal program.
The bills seek to guarantee insurers don’t deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, institute lifetime maximums for coverage or strip some of the benefits such as pregnancy care that were mandated by the federal act.
“Before the Affordable Care Act, a very sick child could use up all their lifetime benefits within days or months,” said Rep. Della Au Belatti, chairwoman of the House Health Committee.
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Since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, about 54,000 people in the state gained coverage, according to the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Nationwide, more than 10 million people had coverage through the act, the department said.
Because of the rapidly shifting discussion in Washington, many state lawmakers around the country are grappling with what kind of bills to introduce to preserve parts of the Affordable Care Act, said Richard Cauchi, health program director at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
“I think they’re going to have a hard time with the replacement piece, and that’s what worries me,” said state Sen. Rosalyn Baker, chairwoman of the Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health Committee. “They’re going to repeal, but they’re not going to replace because they can’t get consensus.”
The Hawaii bills, introduced in the House and Senate, both included a mandate that individuals purchase insurance — part of the federal law that encouraged healthy, young people to sign up, providing a funding source for the sicker patients insurance companies were forced to accept. The Senate bill was amended Tuesday to add an income tax credit, which could help people forced to buy health insurance to pay premiums. It’s unclear whether there will be any federal funding available to help defray the cost for low-income customers.
“Without the federal money that would subsidize the cost, how would you make it affordable?” said Beth Giesting, a consultant lobbying for Hawaii Association of Health Care Plans. “If it’s not affordable, you can’t mandate it.”
Without knowing what the federal government is going to do, “we’re kind of working in the dark here,” Giesting said.
At a hearing on the Senate bill Tuesday, Hawaii Medical Services Association, the state’s largest health insurance company, provided questions and comments on the bill, but didn’t support or oppose it. The company pulled out of the employer side of Hawaii’s health exchange in 2014 complaining about technical problems at what was then a state-run exchange. It also, along with Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, has blamed some quarterly losses on expenses related to the Affordable Care Act.
The bills, introduced in the House and Senate, also seek to allow young people up to age 26 to stay on their parents’ health insurance and to ensure that women aren’t charged more than men for insurance.
Sowena Achen, 35, was helping take care of her four-month-old nephew Makana Albert while his mom was signing him up for insurance. Achen is worried about what will happen to her nephew and many families who hail from Micronesia if insurance under the Affordable Care Act ends.
“Without the insurance, would they be OK?” Achen said. “I’m scared sometimes.”
8 responses to “Hawaii bills aim to save best parts of Affordable Care Act”
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Let the unaffordable careless act die as it should. I’m happy 54,000 have been able to get insurance but at a cost that several hundred thousand of us have been forced to bear with much higher rates and lower quality of service.
Right. No one ever discusses the other side of the ledger where the majority of everyone else is paying more and getting less.
No, keep the humanitarian act and improve it. We always should have a public option so that all would receive Medicare regardless of economic circumstances. Yes, taxes would go up but you would also get mostly free medical attention such as Canadians have. By the way, Canadians love their public insurance and feel sorry for the inequitable system we have here.
Allie, actually it is Medicaid that the article is speaking about that is affected by the repeal of ACA. Not Medicare. Medicaid is the part that ACA has changed which allowed 54,000 people to acquire health care insurance. Secondly, Canada has struggled with their form of health care insurance. But it is interesting to note that Canada has one of the highest life expectancy (80 years) and lowest infant mortality rate in the industrialized world. Yes, the ACA comes with a cost as many welfare services come with that. It is under the belief that the more well off help their less well off counterparts by paying higher premiums. That is an area that is the reason why many want to repeal ACA. This notion of government assistance is where many fall on the divide of the political ideology (Republicans and Democrats). Good or bad, there is no question that it has helped millions to acquire medical insurance.
the case for obamacare
aloha oe aloha oe…..
“…consider the best parts…” Is this an admission by Hawaii Democrats that ACA is a failure?
A total con, perpetrated by Obama and the Democrats. IT’s been an absolute failure for the “folks”, and a windfall for institutions. Instead of insuring the 40 million uninsured, they destroyed health-care in America.
Peanutgallery, it all depends where you stand on the issue. For many, it has caused their premiums to go up. For those that could not previously acquire health insurance through Medicaid, they (54,000) now have the care of hat they need. Yes, it is welfare as it helps the less well off through the higher premiums for the more well off. This is where the Republicans and the Democrats differ on the issue. Benefits from ACA are more in tune with socialist ideology in that it is about helping the less fortunate through the higher taxes and or premiums of the more fortunate. Republicans abhor the socialist ideology and will go against that notion. Democrats on the other hand are more slanted to socialist ideologies. Thus, we have a repeal about to happen now that we have a Republican dominated Congress and a president that is a Republican also. Because if ACA millions have finally become insured. As far as a windfall for insurance, that could be debated as they themselves have more costs due to more insured bodies. I Susie t that if you do the math, your blanket statement may fall.