Nearly a week before an election that could lead to changes to the monumental health care law, West Virginia advocates on Wednesday touted the benefits of the Affordable Care Act to the state.
“The ACA expanded health insurance to millions of Americans and West Virginians,” said Ellen Allen, executive director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care.
Allen’s comments came during a press conference announcing the open enrollment period for health insurance plans healthcare.govthe federal government’s health insurance marketplace that was created with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, and which former President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010.
West Virginia’s uninsured rate has fallen 29% in 2013before the law was fully implemented, to almost 6% today. Last year, more than 51,000 West Virginia residents purchased health insurance through the federal health insurance marketplace Healthcare.gov.
West Virginia is also one of 40 states that have expanded their Medicaid program to low-income adults, another provision of the Affordable Care Act. More than 500,000 West Virginia residents were enrolled in Medicaid as of April, according to the state Department of Human Services.
The federal law also eliminated lifetime caps on health insurance spending and mandated that health insurance companies offer people coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions.
West Virginia is likely to elect state and federal leaders who oppose the health care law. Republican candidate for governor as attorney general Patrick Morrisey has joined a lawsuit Seventeen other states asked the courts to repeal the law.
Former President Donald Trump tried to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act but failed. Recently, Trump said he doesn’t plan to revisit attempts to overturn the health care law, but said during a debate that he has “concepts of a plan” to overhaul the law. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that Republicans would pursue “massive reform” of the Affordable Care Act if Trump were re-elected president.
Allen said advocates want everyone who gets elected to support the health care law.
“We would like to see continued support for the Affordable Care Act,” Allen told a reporter after the news conference. “To ensure that subsidies continue, every American can afford access to affordable health care.”
The Affordable Care Act brought about change, Allen said, but without the subsidies included in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the plans are still high-priced for many people.
“It probably would have been too expensive for me, but with the expanded tax credits, the available credits make it more affordable,” she said.
Rusty Williams, a Kanawha County resident, spoke about his experience being diagnosed with late-stage testicular cancer in 2012, when various aspects of the health care law took effect.
“People could still be discriminated against because of pre-existing conditions and things like that, and I was one of those people,” Williams said. “They basically said, ‘You need emergency surgery.’ This is bad. How can you pay for that?’ That was literally the next course of action. They sent me to talk to the finance people.”
Williams said he spent the next six weeks trying to get health insurance, accepting that without the treatment he would instead live out the remaining months of his life as best he could. He eventually found insurance coverage with the James “Tiger” Morton Catastrophic Illness Commission, a government program It is established as a last resort for people with a life-threatening illness who have no other resources.
Then the Affordable Care Act was implemented and Williams was able to get health insurance coverage, he said.
“I firmly believe that without the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion, I would not be here today,” Williams said. “On behalf of every West Virginian and every Mountaineer who has been in my position, I cannot praise the Affordable Care Act and what it has done to me highly enough.”
Allen said the Affordable Care Act is the “biggest advance in women’s health in a generation” and an “economic engine” for the state.
“The ACA has contributed to a strong job market. The ACA and Medicaid expansion as part of the ACA has increased reimbursements for rural hospitals,” Allen said. “It kept a lot of them alive and running.”
Open enrollment for plans on healthcare.gov begins Friday, November 1st and continues through January 15th, 2025. Individuals who would like their health insurance to begin on January 1st, 2025 should enroll by December 15th.
