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Chicago Tribune
October 1, 2013
Millions of Americans will learn today what President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law actually means for them, as the administration opens new insurance marketplaces in 50 states despite the government shutdown.
Administration officials emphasized that a federal shutdown would not prevent the federal website for enrolling in health coverage — healthcare.gov — from going live at 7 a.m Central time Tuesday, allowing consumers to begin signing up for plans.
Officials in most states that are running their own online insurance marketplaces — including Illinois at GetcoveredIllinois.gov — also are planning to open for business Tuesday. And call centers set up to handle consumer questions through the government’s (800) 318-2596 hotline are scheduled to be open for business.
“The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. That funding is already in place. You can’t shut it down,” Obama resolutely informed his Republican opponents in a televised statement at the White House on Monday.
The launch marks a milestone for Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement, which aims to provide subsidized healthcare to millions of the uninsured, the most ambitious U.S. social program since Medicare was introduced in the 1960s.
The marketplaces, or exchanges, require health plans to provide a broad range of essential benefits that were not necessarily part of individual policies in the past, including mental health services, birth control and preventive care. The coverage is linked to other insurance market reforms and new consumer safeguards including a ban on discrimination based on gender and health history.
It also mandates that Americans obtain insurance or pay a fine.
“Nothing like this has ever existed before,” said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Republicans have fought for months to delay or stop Obamacare, most recently triggering a shutdown of the federal government on Monday night by insisting that a routine funding measure include a delay in Obamacare, which the Democratic-controlled Senate rejected.
Officials running the new exchanges braced for technical glitches that could hamper the enrollment effort.
But the president said that whatever the outcome of talks in Congress, the healthcare reform launch would proceed.
As many as 7 million Americans are expected to sign up for insurance in 2014 through the exchanges, which open for enrollment into new insurance plans on Tuesday and will accept applications through March 31. An additional 8 million people are expected to receive health benefits through an expansion of the government’s Medicaid program for the poor.
Republicans have blamed Obamacare’s requirements for pushing up the cost of health insurance for business and individuals, a claim the Democrats deny.
“What I want is to keep the government running and at the same time to deal with the harms, the millions of Americans who are … at risk of losing their healthcare, are facing skyrocketing insurance premiums,” Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who has been leading the charge among Republicans in Congress to defund the law, said in an interview with CNN.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been the object of intensive Republican attack since it was signed into law in 2010. Its foes tried and failed to use the U.S. Supreme Court and a presidential election to get it overturned in 2012.
