Des Moines, Iowa — Iowa officials have withdrawn the state’s request for a federal waiver to adjust federal health care law rules and help as many as 72-thousand Iowans buy individual insurance policies for 2018. Governor Kim Reynolds says the U.S. Treasury Department was “several weeks away” from calculating the state’s financial commitment to the plan, plus the governor says ObamaCare is too rigid and state officials, ultimately, lacked the flexibility to make any alternative work.
The majority of Iowans who’ll buy individual plans under Affordable Care Act rules will get a federal subsidy. Reynolds says it’s unclear what several thousand other Iowans will wind up paying, so it’s too soon to come up with ANOTHER alternative.
But any option MUST get a federal waiver — and Iowa officials must navigate the same process they abandoned yesterday (Monday) when their original plan was withdrawn.
Reynolds says “Iowa is the first state of many” that will face the collapse of its individual insurance market.
Congress has had plenty of time to address the shortcomings in the federal health care law, according to Reynolds.
A main trigger for the decision to table Iowa’s “stop gap” plan to help Iowans buy individual insurance policies came last Friday when the U.S. Treasury Department notified Iowa its calculations on Iowa’s waiver request wouldn’t be done for “several weeks.” The 72-thousand Iowans who must buy individual insurance policies for 2018 can start to do so next Wednesday.
Reynolds is in Washington today to discuss the issue with Trump administration officials and the Iowa congressional delegation.
