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.
The Fed said in a statement that the decision to lower rates was influenced by the "implications of global developments for the economic outlook" and "muted inflation pressures."
The escalating measure follows several days of heightened tensions between the two countries over the attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
In the shadow of the Washington Square Arch Monday night in front of a crowd of thousands, the presidential hopeful outlined her platform to fight corruption in Washington D.C.
Governments and energy markets worldwide remain on edge Monday as the U.S. continues to blame Iran for the drone attack on two oil installations in Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
The détente emerged Wednesday after China approved tariff exemptions for a number of U.S. imports and President Trump announced that the U.S. will postpone its forthcoming tariff hikes.
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Walsh, a former Congressman from Illinois and conservative radio host, launched his campaign last month by trying to make the case that Trump is uniquely and morally unfit to lead the nation.
A coalition of 145 CEOs sent an open letter to the U.S. Senate urging them to take up legislation to curb the epidemic of gun violence.
President Trump announced Wednesday that the government will develop new policies to ban flavored e-cigarettes in an effort to curb underage vaping.
