By Associated Press - Thursday, May 4, 2017

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) - The Latest on efforts to overhaul the federal health care law (all times local):

11:50 a.m.

Alaska U.S. Rep. Don Young has voted in support of a health care law rewrite, saying inaction to fix a broken health care system wasn’t an option.

The Republican says he received commitments from the Trump administration and House leaders that provisions in the legislation would go toward addressing needs in Alaska, where high health care costs and insurance premiums are a concern.

Young called Thursday’s vote the first of many steps in a long process to repeal the existing health care law. The bill next goes to the Senate.

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski says it remains to be seen how much of the House bill the Senate will retain.

Gov. Bill Walker says Alaska would be hit hardest by the bill but did not immediately specify how.

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5:30 a.m.

Republican U.S. Rep. Don Young, of Alaska, remained undecided Wednesday on how he will vote on the House Republican leadership’s plan to overhaul the Affordable Care Act.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports (https://bit.ly/2qIAukx ) Young’s spokesman says the congressman had been reviewing the plan and laid out a number of concerns.

He says Young is hoping to figure out if the concerns to Alaska can be addressed.

Young was among several Republicans who opposed the bill when it first approached a vote in March. The revised plan will be voted on Thursday.

An assessment by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation shows Alaska as one of the states that would see a rise in insurance costs under the initial GOP plan compared with the cost under the Affordable Care Act.

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Information from: Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner, https://www.newsminer.com

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