Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Obama To Americans: Tell Republicans Not To Undo Health Care Progress
President Barack Obama is urging the public to help save his health care law, which is in serious danger of being repealed under President-elect Donald Trump. In a Facebook Live appearance, Obama says the Affordable Care Act has improved millions of lives over the six years it's been the "law of the land." He says the country can't go "backward." (12/2)
Obama spoke amid the fourth year鈥檚 enrollment period for consumers to buy health plans through ACA marketplaces, created for people who cannot get affordable coverage through a job. 鈥淚f you haven鈥檛 gotten covered, now is the time to do it,鈥 the president said, noting that Dec. 15 is the deadline for people to have insurance at the start of 2017. ... 鈥淒on鈥檛 let Republicans in Congress鈥 take away the ACA鈥檚 most popular features, Obama said. 鈥淭ell them, 鈥榃e want to build on the progress we鈥檝e made, not abandon it.鈥欌夆 (Goldstein, 12/3)
鈥淚 know that lately there鈥檚 been yet another debate in Washington about health care reform, and it might make it sound like your insurance is somehow at risk, but here鈥檚 the bottom line: the most important thing for you to do is to get you and your family covered right away for 2017,鈥 the president said. 鈥淓nrollment is open right now but only until Jan. 31. If you sign up by Dec. 15, you鈥檒l be covered starting Jan. 1.鈥 (Radnofsky, 12/2)
President Obama聽on Friday聽made the case for people to sign up for ObamaCare, pushing back on congressional Republicans calling for the law's repeal. In a video message streamed live on Facebook, Obama encouraged viewers to go to聽HealthCare.gov聽to sign up for coverage for next year before a聽Dec. 15聽enrollment deadline. Obama addressed concerns that GOP repeal efforts could mean coverage won鈥檛 be there.He acknowledged that the debate in Washington 鈥渕ight make it sound like your insurance is somehow at risk,鈥 but he said ObamaCare is still the law of the land. (Sullivan, 12/2)
The Connecticut Insurance Department plans to seek a court order to liquidate insurer HealthyCT at the end of the year, following an appointed overseer鈥檚 report that the nonprofit company 鈥 created with federal funds made available through Obamacare 鈥 is insolvent. As of October, the Wallingford company had 30,973 customers, but only about 7,000 are expected to still be covered through group plans in January, according to the status report, filed in Superior Court this week. The Connecticut Insurance Department prohibited HealthyCT from selling new policies or renewing existing coverage in July, and the company鈥檚 13,527 individual-market plans are scheduled to end Dec. 31. (Levin Becker, 12/2)