President-elect Donald Trump has promised several times in recent months to repeal President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. However, those who work with Obamacare in the Kansas City area believe any changes will come later rather than sooner.
"Job killing Obamacare is just one more way the system is rigged. Hillary Clinton wants to double down on Obamacare destroying American healthcare forever and destroying businesses forever,” said Trump at a recent campaign rally.
Obamacare lost $2.2 billion in 2014. The average premium for health insurance is also expected to go up 25 percent next year with fewer insurers to choose from.
However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, repealing Obamacare would mean 21.3 million fewer Americans would have health insurance.
"Congress is gonna have to step in and make some tweaks,” said Joseph Jefferson of the Good Samaritan Project.
Jefferson works with people who rely on Obamacare. He doesn’t believe the Affordable Care Act can be completely repealed, only reformed.
"There's too many core components of Obamacare when you break it down that the vast majority of Americans actually favor,” he said.
One possible component Jefferson speaks of -- not being denied health insurance because of any pre-existing condition.
"There's been a lot of talk about repealing the Affordable Care Act, but there's been very little talk about what it will be replaced with,” said Jim Torres, Program manager for health insurance services at Rodgers Health Center.
Torres also works with Obamacare daily. He says there’s no way to predict when changes will come to ACA and that it’s business as usual for now.
"Even if they do make changes to it legislatively, I don't see how those changes could take affect before the end of next year,” he said. "We expect to keep doing what we do until the law is changed."
In order to fully repeal and replace Obamacare, Trump would need a 60-vote supermajority in the Republican-controlled Senate. But he could also reform ACA by eliminating several elements developed under Obama. The president-elect has proposed several ideas to affordable healthcare already, including tax-free health savings accounts and allowing insurers to sell policies across state lines.
Open enrollment for Obamacare started Nov. 1 and continues until Jan. 31, 2017. As long as those eligible sign up before the deadline, their insurance is guaranteed throughout all of 2017, regardless of whether or not Obamacare is repealed sometime next year or not.
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Josh Helmuth can be reached at josh.helmuth@kshb.com
