The news coming out of Washington, D.C., about Republican plans to repeal Obamacare have me and my family pretty worried. My employer is out of state, so we purchase our health care (Kaiser) from the individual market on Washington’s exchange. Kaiser has been great and the coverage has been affordable. My wife has multiple sclerosis and we depend on that insurance in a big way.
If ACA is repealed over the next few months, the financial supports used to stabilize the individual health care market will go away. Insurers will start pulling out of individual markets in 2018. My wife could lose access to her doctor and essential medications.
There are effective ways to stabilize the individual insurance market, including some Republican ideas. But repealing Obamacare funding mechanisms now, with a vague promise to replace the whole shebang later, is absolutely the worst way to go. Not only does it scare people like us who depend on those markets, not to mention insurers and hospitals, it guarantees much less money to fund an eventual replacement.
We hope that Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, will be a voice of sanity in Congress.
