About 680,000 Arizonans do not have health insurance. Having almost 10% of the state's population uninsured can lead to obvious problems. Gov. Doug Ducey is seeking to mitigate the back-end costs to the state of treating COVID-19 patients by requesting an extension to the Affordable Care Act’s 2020 enrollment.
In a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Ducey asked for a special enrollment period, making the case that “opening a special enrollment period will cut unnecessary red tape and lift a paperwork burden off individuals who are already facing challenges.” But, as Politico reported Tuesday, the request was denied at the direction of the president.
The Show spoke to Julie Rovner, Chief Washington correspondent with Kaiser Health News, to parse out this request.
