Loebsack calls for stabilizing health insurance markets

IOWA CITY - U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack is spending August meeting with residents in his 24-county southeast Iowa congressional district, visiting farms, touring businesses and wishing he was back in Washington, D.C., working on health care reform.

Although the Iowa City Democrat sees little or no likelihood majority Republicans can repeal and replace Obamacare, 'we have to fix the Affordable Care Act because it's here to stay.”

His primary concern at the moment is the instability in the health insurance markets in many states, including Iowa.

'We don't have a lot of time with what's happening in a lot of places around the country with the insurance markets being so unstable at the moment,” he said Thursday.

Many insurers are deciding whether to remain in the market. In Iowa, for example, Minnesota-based Medica - the last remaining insurer selling individual insurance plans in a majority of Iowa counties - has said it will continue to sell plans for the 2018 coverage year. However, Medica told the Iowa insurance commissioner the average proposed rate increase for all products will be 43.5 percent.

'So it's really ‘crunchtime' in the sense of trying to do something legislatively to stabilize the insurance markets,” Loebsack said during an interview at his Iowa City office.

To protect Iowans who might be in counties without access to a qualified health plan offered through the state exchange, Loebsack proposed legislation to allow them access to the same coverage offered to members of Congress and their staffs.

Loebsack said he's pleased that Republican Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander and Democratic Sen. Patti Murray are looking for a bipartisan plan to stabilize the insurance markets. However, they won't have hearings until the Senate reconvenes in September after Labor Day.

In the meantime, President Donald Trump is threatening to withhold cost subsidies the federal government has been paying insurance companies to insure low-income individuals through the Obamacare exchanges.

'Many Republicans are saying the same things as I am - that's creating instability,” Loebsack said. 'So the president could take an action at this moment that would help relieve some of the pressure on the insurance industry and, therefore, on folks on the exchange.”

In the wake of the collapse of efforts in the Senate to repeal and replace Obamacare and enact a new health insurance plan, Loebsack sees an opportunity for working on a bipartisan basis to identify the problems with the ACA and find solutions.

Acting to stabilize the insurance markets would be the 'low-hanging fruit” Congress quickly could accomplish, Loebsack said.

'If people are going to be honest about this, the likelihood that there will be a repeal and replace is almost zero at this point,” he said. Fearing primary challenges, some Republicans continue to call for repeal and replace, he added.

'Well, that's done now,” Loebsack said, and referring to polls that show Americans, by as much as two-to-one margins, prefer the ACA to an unknown alternative, he added, 'Let's do the will of the people.”

House Republican leadership appears less willing to do the kinds of the things they're doing in the Senate, 'but I would urge them to get off the dime and to be open-minded about having hearings.”

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