JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Gov. Bill Walker said Thursday that as many as 45,000 Alaskans stand to lose health care coverage under a Republican bill proposed in the U.S. House.
Walker said that figure includes the more than 30,000 lower-income Alaskans covered by the expanded Medicaid program and roughly two-thirds of the Alaskans with individual plans on the federally facilitated insurance marketplace.
Currently, about 19,000 Alaskans have individual plans. Walker said about 13,000 could lose coverage.
The estimates for both groups are close to 45,000 when rounded, state Division of Insurance Director Lori Wing-Heier said by email. They are based on enrollment figures that continue to shift.
Walker released the numbers Thursday before GOP leaders delayed a vote on the bill, which seeks to overhaul former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.
High health care costs, a relatively small market and a lack of competition have been ongoing concerns in Alaska, which is down to one insurer offering individual plans.
Wing-Heier has said the House bill would “kill” the state’s individual market by making plans unaffordable for low- to moderate-income Alaskans.
Walker expanded Medicaid in 2015 with the understanding that the federal share would not dip below 90 percent. State officials have seen expansion as a way to leverage federal dollars to help fund Medicaid reform efforts.
Health commissioner Valerie Davidson said broader changes proposed to Medicaid under the bill are concerning, too. Medicaid, for decades, has been a state and federal partnership, she said.
“When you have a true partnership, a good partnership … you make those decisions together,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that one party can shirk their responsibility and save money on their end by shoving those responsibilities to the other partner. And that’s what’s being contemplated in this bill.”
The state is grappling with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit. Davidson said the state would not be able to absorb a shift in federal responsibility to the state unless it cuts Medicaid benefits, enrollments or payments to providers.
Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the current law has problems, noting efforts the state has taken to try to shore up the individual market and slow the rise in premium prices.
But she said any replacement of the law needs to be done carefully, with a goal of getting it right rather than rushing something through.
Speaking during a Facebook Live event Thursday, Alaska’s senior senator said she sees reducing costs and increasing access as goals of the overhaul effort.
She said she could not support the overhaul as it stood in the House, saying it doesn’t solve Alaska’s problems. The bill remained a work in progress.
She said she is advocating for tax credits that better reflect the needs of Alaskans. She also said she wants support and improvements for Medicaid and to protect increased services offered by expanded Medicaid.
She reiterated her belief that a push by some to defund Planned Parenthood should not be part of this debate.
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