Sen. Debbie Stabenow said Tuesday that the main reason insurance costs are going up is instability in the marketplace, not Obamacare.
“We have an insurance industry not sure how to do the ratings because they don’t know what’s going to happen. They also cut in half the amount of time people have to sign up for the health insurance exchanges. They’re not trying to get younger, healthier people in anymore,” Ms. Stabenow, Michigan Democrat, said on CNN.
She said that if the Trump administration and Congress would promise to uphold some of the Obamacare promises, the market would stabilize and prices would go down.
“When I talk to the folks in Michigan, they say just stabilize things by keeping the commitments made when health reform was passed. There were certain payments that were agreed to to help keep costs down, to help insurance companies make sure they could cover pre-existing conditions without costs going up. One of those payments has gone away completely, the other the White House says they’re not sure they’re going to keep,” Ms. Stabenow said.
She also introduced a bill to provide a tax credit to small businesses to allow them to buy insurance for their employees.
“I have a bill that would provide a 50 percent tax credit to small businesses for providing health insurance. They want to, that’s where a majority of uninsured people work, let’s help small businesses be able to afford insurance,” Ms. Stabenow said.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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