At deadline, demand still high for Obamacare in Philly despite planned repeal

This new access to preventative care is saving hundreds – even thousands – of lives across the state and saving millions to taxpayers by diagnosing diseases and conditions before they spiral out of control.

Bradley Herring, a health economist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said there will likely be some kind of coverage available next year for those who have recently signed up.

Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele said after 6 years of repeatedly voting to overturn Obamacare, he’s surprised his party doesn’t have a plan ready to go.

Organizers say their sign-up numbers appear to be down slightly compared to past year. “There are some good things that we would put in any bill”, he said.

The Trump administration did not release enrollment numbers for all 50 states, so it is not clear how the nationwide sign-up numbers compare to the Obama administration’s target of 13.8 million sign-ups across all 50 states.

It wasn’t just Trump’s decision to cancel outreach that impacted how many people got covered.

If you’re like a lot of folks, you may have been dragging your feet because of uncertainty over the fate of the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare). “And the penalties, the tax penalties, just weren’t significant enough to motivate them to do that”. Another would replace the law’s unpopular individual mandate with a requirement that people maintain “continuous” coverage if they want to avoid more expensive policies.

A top conservative House Republican called for full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and said Republicans should focus their work on a replacement plan rather than trying to fix a flawed law. Peck noted that by January 14, enrollment was higher than it had been at the same point during last year’s sign-up period.

The administration’s actions may have blocked almost half a million people from getting covered. We must guarantee uninterrupted and meaningful health insurance coverage for cancer patients, survivors, and those at risk of one day developing a disease. Some will choose not to get the care they need and others will be forced into medical bankruptcy. But she also clarifies that, despite Trump’s executive order, the ACA is still the law.

Whether the ACA remains in place or not, anyone who has enrolled in a plan by Tuesday’s deadline will receive insurance benefits through the end of 2017 once they pay their first premium.