releases: https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/news/in-the-news/obamacare-hurts-alaska-most
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://www.sullivan.senate.gov/news/in-the-news/obamacare-hurts-alaska-most | Obamacare hurts Alaska most | 2015-12-13 | 2015 | 2015-12 | Republican | House | AK | Dan Sullivan | S001198 | www.sullivan.senate.gov | legacy | 12.13.15 Obamacare hurts Alaska most Recently, while home in Anchorage, in the course of two hours, three people in three differentplaces a gas station, Carr's and Lowe's talked to me about how Obamacare is wiping themout. Hardly a day passes when I don't hear from or read about Alaskans harmed by Obamacare. One Alaska family tells me they now pay $1,200 per month in premiums with a $10,000deductible. Another couple pays more than $3,000 per month in premiums, almost $38,000 per year.Here's an excerpt from a constituent letter: The renewal paperwork that I just receivedestimated our new payment to be just over $1,000/month doubling our monthly expense ...What is a young family to do? Another: Insurance rates are killing my small business ... We have tried to keep our employeesand their families covered but don't see how we can continue to. Please, please help us!! an Alaskan wrote to me. Workers and families are suffering. Small businesses are being squeezed. Job creation isstymied. Nearly every promise made by the president and those who voted for the AffordableCare Act has been broken. If you like your health care plan, you can keep it, the president told us. If you like yourdoctor, you can keep your doctor, he said. The law, he promised, means more choice, morecompetition, lower costs for millions of Americans.He also promised family premiums would be reduced on average by $2,500 per year. Instead, costs are soaring. A bronze plan, the least expensive available, averages $420 per month,with a deductible of $5,653 for an individual and $11,600 for a family. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised Obamacare would create 4 million jobs 400,000 jobs almost immediately. But the Congressional Budget Office projectsObamacare will result in 2 million fewer full-time jobs by 2017, and 2.5 million fewer by 2024. No state has been hurt more than Alaska. Five insurance companies originally offered individualcoverage in the exchange. Today, only two are left. Both are increasing premiums by about 40percent in 2015. In Anchorage, the lowest level bronze plan will rise 46 percent in just one year,making it among the most expensive in the country. Under the plan, a non-smoking 40-year-oldnot receiving subsidies will pay $579 a month with a $5,750 deductible, or $678 a month with a$5,250 deductible. Despite these crushing costs, Obamacare requires Alaskans to purchase these plans the firsttime in U.S. history Congress mandated individual Americans to buy something. Many in Alaska and across the country have chosen to go without coverage, instead paying theexpensive yearly fine.Americans are rightfully asking: What's the point of having healthinsurance that's being forced on us if we can't afford it? Others just forego seeing their doctors. A recent Gallup poll found that in 2014, one in threeAmericans put off needed medical treatment because of cost. As costs rise, so will that number. For Alaskans, the problems only get worse. The Cadillac Tax, which taxes premiums, takeseffect in 2018, and will impact an estimated 90 percent of Alaska businesses. A company with 20covered employees will be required to pay another $28,000 per year in taxes. These extra costs on small businesses will be handed down to their employees in the form ofreduced benefits and wages. State and local governments will pay increased taxes. And hard-working Alaskans covered by union plans will also pay more under the Cadillac Tax. One of my campaign promises was to vote to repeal Obamacare, which I did on Thursday. Thepresident has vowed to veto it, claiming the Affordable Care Act is working. United Health, one of the nation's biggest insurance companies, says that because of losses, itmay pull out of Obamacare altogether.Premera, one of the two health insurers left in Alaska, says it can't continue to sustain losses. For the sake of millions of Americans who have been misled, we can't afford to wait forObamacare to self-destruct.Providing affordable health care for all Americans is a very important goal, but Obamacare isn'teven succeeding at that. It's estimated that 33 million Americans in 2014 still didn't havecoverage. According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 10 years 27 million Americans willstill be without insurance. Moreover, a health care program that is economically wiping out middle class families and smallbusinesses is simply not sustainable. It's imperative that we repeal this law and replace it withone that includes tort reform, enables interstate competition, allows small business the samehealthcare tax deductions as big business, is transparent so people know what they are buyingand ensures people with pre-existing conditions get covered. There are a number of bills that have been introduced that would enact these solutions. When selling the law to the public, President Obama invoked The fierce urgency of now. That's exactly what I hear when Alaskans write: What is a young family to do? Please, pleasehelp us!! By: Sen. Dan Sullivan Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |