Arizonans who are signing up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act can expect to keep that through next year.
“The chance of any change to the 2017 plans is next to zero,” said Allen Gjersvig, director of Navigator and Enrollment service with Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers.
That echoes statements from federal officials and those representing the health-insurance industry.
“We also have a commitment to continuous coverage. Consumers should be covered and patients should be protected — and sudden disruptions would jeopardize both," Kristine Grow of America's Health Insurance Plans said last week following the election.
Arizona was the poster child for rising premiums and dwindling competition in the federally run marketplace. Now with Republicans controlling Congress and the White House next year, the fate of Obamacare is uncertain.
In a recent interview, President-elect Donald Trump has expressed support for the law’s provisions allowing young people to stay on a parent’s policy and for insurers not denying those with pre-existing conditions.
A big question, Gjersvig says, will be changing Medicaid funding to, for example, block grants so states have more power over how that money is spent.
“In Arizona, we don’t know how that would play out, but we certainly have concerns over the thousands and thousands of Arizonans who received their coverage through Medicaid (AHCCCS).”
About 400,000 Arizonans are covered thanks to the expansion of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System — another 180,000 through the exchange with many receiving subsidies. And even a conservative like Gov. Doug Ducey doesn’t want the entire law axed.
“The fact that we want to see people with pre-existing conditions or hitting lifetime caps have a solution, that’s something we would love to have bipartisan solution on," Ducey said.
Many top Republicans, including Sen. John McCain, support a replacement of the ACA, but not hundreds of thousands of Arizonans losing coverage.
