Gov. Reynolds wants 1-on-1 with President Trump over Obamacare fix

DES MOINES - With health care options for as many as 70,000 Iowans in the balance, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday she wants a direct line to President Donald Trump.

Reynolds said she continues to work with the president's staff to secure approval for Iowa's proposed short-term health insurance plan.

According to a Washington Post report, which cited unnamed sources, Trump in August told one of his agency heads to reject Iowa's stopgap proposal, which was designed as a short-term measure to ease the costs of insurance plans under the federal Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

The Post's reporting disclosed multiple ways the Trump administration was dismantling Obamacare - including even directing that a proposal from GOP-controlled Iowa be rejected - after Congress failed to undo the health law.

During her weekly news conference Tuesday, Reynolds said she continues to have constructive conversations with Trump administration officials about Iowa's stopgap plan.

The proposal is in a mandatory public comment period that ends Oct. 19. But open enrollment for 2018 plans begins less than two weeks later, on Nov. 1.

'I haven't spoken directly to the president. I've asked for a conversation,” Reynolds said. 'We were actually on the phone yesterday, my team was, with Seema Verma (administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) talking about the stopgap proposal and where we're at, what we need to do. So our indication is they've been very receptive, they continue to work with us.”

Under the stopgap plan, Iowa would use federal Affordable Care Act funding to provide financial assistance to individuals based on age and income, and would establish a separate program for individuals with high health care costs.

Roughly 70,000 Iowans purchase insurance through the Affordable Car Act's marketplace, and roughly 20,000 of them could face costs so high they likely would decline to purchase insurance, the state insurance division has estimated.

State Insurance Commissioner Doug Ommen said he thinks the stopgap plan, which he designed in partnership with health insurer Wellmark, would ease the burden of spiking insurance costs for one year.

Only one insurer, Medica, plans to sell health plans statewide on 2018 and then only with a steep premium increase that would be most felt by customers not receiving federal subsidies.

Wellmark has said it would re-enter Iowa's individual market if the stopgap is approved. But the state asked for a response on the plan from the federal government within 14 days - and that was back in June.

Even if approved, the stopgap plan could face a legal challenge by individuals or groups who feel it does not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. Reynolds said her administration attempted to create a proposal that would pass legal scrutiny.

Both Ommen and Reynolds have stressed the plan, even if approved, is just a short-term solution and have implored Congress to pass long-term health care reform.