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 Trump administration significantly weakened the Endangered Species Act (ESA) this week, largely gutting its implementation mechanisms to allow for greater economic development in protected habitats. The decision — announced by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior on Monday — was widely condemned by critics who say the revised regulations will hurt biodiversity and wildlife at a most precarious time.
Argentina’s stock market and currency value plummeted this week following a shocking electoral defeat on Sunday for President Mauricio Macri, the nation’s conservative leader.
Markets soared Tuesday morning following the Trump administration's decision to delay and revise its latest round of punitive tariffs against China. The Dow jumped over 400 points while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both rose roughly 2 percent.
The Iowa caucus is still six months away but Democrats are not wasting any time in their effort to return the state to their side of the aisle. Yet the confidence is equally strong within the Republican party.
VineSight, an AI-based start-up, is working to detect misinformation attacks against candidates like Joe Biden or Kamala Harris early during their campaigns.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Monday, Aug. 12, 2019.
Hong Kong International Airport came to crippling halt on Monday with thousands of anti-government protesters occupying the airport’s main terminals. Authorities said operations have “been seriously disrupted” and cancelled all flights in and out of the major international hub.
Michael Sonnenshein, managing director of Grayscale, told Cheddar that recent developments in the U.S.-China trade war are proving to be evidence that Bitcoin has emerged as a safe-haven asset.
The company has announced that it is donating 5,000 units of the generic version of Plan B for women in need as part of a collaboration with the nonprofit Power to Decide.
2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls are bringing the gun debate to 165th annual Iowa State Fair.
