Florida Has The Most To Lose When Obamacare Goes Away

The replacing of Obamacare will be a big issue in the state of Florida

Florida will be ground-zero for President-elect Donald Trump and whatever the Republicans in Congress decide to do with the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The repeal and replacement of the ACA will be a prime topic of conversation in the Sunshine State in 2017 to be sure.

The Obama plan has expanded coverage to about 20 million more Americans, and no state has more at stake than Florida, where more residents signed up than anywhere else in the country.

Must hear: H.H.S. Slyvia Burwell talks about Obamacare and President elect Trump.

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President-elect Trump campaigned vowing to dismantle the 2010 health law as soon as he takes office. But replacing it will take time, and what a new system would look like has never been clear. He also promised that when the law is repealed it will be immediately replaced.

At the moment the Republicans have a couple of possible replacement plans to Obamacare, but no plan is thought to be ready. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) has put a plan out but it lacks details and lacks a true pre-existing clause, something that President-elect Trump told the American people was a part of the law he wanted to keep.

In his 60 Minutes the president-elect, some features of Obamacare, could stay, including its protection of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. The requirement to buy health insurance or pay a fine will likely go. Speaker Paul Ryan has proposed tax credits instead as an incentive to buy insurance.

The National Governors Association (NGA), a bipartisan group representing every state, is now eyeing a more public — and more aggressive — role alongside GOP leaders as they attempt to gut the massive federal program. The governors want to be at the table with Congress when drafting a replacement for Obamacare. That will likely slow the process down for at least the better part on 2017.

Meanwhile, last summer Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott refused to expand Medicaid under the law to cover roughly 700,000 additional Floridians. Something that drew criticism from other Republican leaders like Vice President-elect and former Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, all three took the federal money while expanding Medicaid in their states.

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As of today more than 1.7 million Floridians purchased health insurance through the federal marketplace, which enables 8 in 10 people to buy a plan for less than $75 a month, according to federal health officials. The government subsidizes more than 90 percent of them.

The uninsured rate has dropped significantly in the Sunshine State since the law took effect, from 21 percent in 2013 to 12 percent in 2015. And although premiums have increased since the law took effect, federal subsidies have increased with them.

Florida is the exception to what many feel is a bad law. In the Sunshine State for people with pre-existing conditions as well as women the ACA has been very successful.

One case that illustrates the problems Floridians face is what has happened to Sherry Riggs, a 55-year-old barber. She is self-employed, pays $37 out of pocket while the government pays her insurer $500 a month on her behalf.

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Riggs, has been ordered to avoid stress after a heart attack and bypass surgery last month. Last year, she had a stent put in, paid for by insurance she purchased under President Barack Obama’s health overhaul.

“If it wasn’t for Obamacare I really would be dead twice now,” said Riggs who recently divorced and has been staying at a friend’s house in Fort Pierce since leaving the hospital a few weeks ago.

Now she’s “terrified,” Riggs said, that if President-elect Donald Trump repeals the Affordable Care Act, “I’m going to be gone.”

Douglas Monroe, a 39-year-old graduate assistant who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a teenager, had to buy insulin on the black market before the Affordable Care Act. For years, he couldn’t afford insurance. He calls the coverage he was able to get in 2013 the best he’s ever had, enabling him to pay $500 a month for insulin pumps and doctor’s visits that would have cost him $35,000 a year.

Now he’s covered through his university, but remains concerned about a repeal. If insurers are no longer forced to cover people with pre-existing conditions, or if minimum coverage requirements are tossed out, he worries that it could affect the private market and make the coverage he needs unaffordable.

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Trump’s victory came just days after this year’s open enrollment period began. Across the state, enrollment coordinators have been flooded with questions from consumers worried they may lose their health insurance.

Cory Brown, who oversees an enrollment non-profit in the Florida Panhandle that helped sign up 1,000 people last year, said many people are deeply concerned because they can’t get insurance through their employers. “They’re working families who need the Affordable Care Act just to insure their families,” Brown said.

Still, enrollment groups are encouraging people to sign up, stressing that nothing has changed for now.

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Erin Hoover, a 37-year-old adjunct professor at Florida State University who is nearly six months pregnant with her first child, said the health law has been a “lifesaver.” Her plan has covered all the additional ultrasounds and blood tests she needs because her pregnancy is considered high-risk at her age.

The law established minimum requirements for essential coverage, including pregnancies. Previously, many insurers didn’t include basic pregnancy coverage for women of child-bearing age because of the high costs.

“I’m worried that a lot of Americans won’t know what they’ve lost until it’s gone,” she said.

Some quotes used in this story came from the ASSOCIATED PRESS. 

 

Jim Williams is the Washington Bureau Chief, Digital Director as well as the Director of Special Projects for Genesis Communications. He is starting his third year as part of the team. This is Williams 40th year in the media business, and in that time he has served in a number of capacities. He is a seven time Emmy Award winning television producer, director, writer and executive. He has developed four regional sports networks, directed over 2,000 live sporting events including basketball, football, baseball hockey, soccer and even polo to name a few sports. Major events include three Olympic Games, two World Cups, two World Series, six NBA Playoffs, four Stanley Cup Playoffs, four NCAA Men’s National Basketball Championship Tournaments (March Madness), two Super Bowl and over a dozen college bowl games. On the entertainment side Williams was involved s and directed over 500 concerts for Showtime, Pay Per View and MTV Networks.