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 market for hemp-derived CBD is expected to hit $5.1 billion in 2019 and $23.7 billion by 2023, according to new research from CBD and cannabis-focused market research firm, Brightfield Group. Despite bullish projections from researchers, enthusiasm from the industry, and curiosity from consumers, however, legislation at the federal and local levels isn’t keeping pace.
In a ceremony that strained credulity, President Donald Trump touted his administration's environmental protection initiatives in a speech on Monday.
Female candidates must navigate the question of "electability," a double-standard for political campaigns according to Amanda Litman, former Hillary Clinton staffer and executive director of the political action committee, Run for Something.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law on Monday that will allow Democratic lawmakers in Washington access to the president’s highly sought after state tax returns.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Monday, June 8, 2019.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority, a government department charged with ensuring business competition, ordered Amazon to pause its investment in Deliveroo, a widely-popular British restaurant delivery service.
The Trump administration will continue its efforts to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, Justice Department lawyers said Friday. The government told a federal judge in Maryland that it will pursue further litigation but did not provide details on its rationale or legal strategy.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, July 5, 2019.
President Donald Trump’s Fourth of July celebration in Washington, D.C. this year has been heavily criticized, with opponents objecting to what they view as gauche militarism and slamming the White House for politicizing the nation’s birthday.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, July 3, 2019.
