As Washington debates whether the country should repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, applicants are rushing to get covered, reportedly driving applications to a record high.
“I’m glad that the people understand the importance of getting coverage,” Donna Christensen, the former delegate for the U.S. Virgin Islands’ at-large district, told Cheddar on Wednesday.
But many still remain uninsured. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 28.2 million people under the age of 65 did not have coverage in 2016.
For context, that's a smaller proportion than before Obamacare passed. The federal agency said that the percentage of people uninsured now stands at 9 percent, compared to 16 percent in 2010.
Many uninsured and current beneficiaries of the Act worry that a repeal would be in place by 2019 and that time is running out. However, Christensen argues that this is not the case. She says it’s going to be very hard for Congress to repeal ACA.
“The Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land,” the ex-congresswoman said, stating that she doubts a repeal would ever happen.
“It was not easy to get the law passed, but it’s going to be more difficult to take it away,” Christensen said.
She encouraged the uninsured to seek coverage by December 15th this year, pointing out that benefits will be valid into the next year.
Congressional Budget Office director Keith Hall put out a blog post on the federal agency’s website on Wednesday. He says that according to the CBO’s most recent baseline, repealing Obamacare's individual mandate would reduce the nation’s federal budget deficit by $338 billion within the next decade. That's less than the previous estimate of $416 billion, made last December.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is launching a new global program called "Generation Equality: Realizing women's rights for an equal future," a partnership between UN Women, the World Economic Forum, the private sector, and Gates Foundation.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney from Utah told Cheddar he would be interested in hearing from John Bolton as the president's impeachment trial defense headed into its final day.
Speaking before Trump's attorneys begin their final day of defense arguments in the impeachment trial Schumer maintained Democrats would not bargain on witnesses.
U.S. officials say President Donald Trump's long-awaited Middle East peace plan calls for the creation of a State of Palestine with its capital in portions of east Jerusalem.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, January 28, 2020.
The Republican senator from Texas gave some indication that he was curious about the alleged bombshell manuscript by former national security advisor John Bolton that might further implicate President Trump in his trial.
Trump's lawyers on Monday brushed past the extraordinary allegations in the draft of a new book by his former national security adviser as the legal team made historical and legal arguments for acquittal.
GOP and Dem senators offered different reactions to a bombshell New York Times report that ex-National Security Advisor John Bolton wrote in a manuscript that President Trump told him that he froze aid to Ukraine in exchange for a Biden investigation.
U.S. stocks fell sharply Monday as investors worry about the potential economic impact of the outbreak of a new virus from China. The declines in the U.S. followed a sell-off in markets in Europe and Japan.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
