KEEP ROLLING, CONTINUED FROM PG. 06
health coverage is not over. President Donald Trump’s administration and many in the Republican-led U.S. Congress are trying to undermine the ACA, by stripping ACAsign-up advertising funds or attempting to remove the ACA mandate that requires adults to get health insurance (because having more insured individuals reduces the cost of insurance plans). Democratic politicians are worried the whole system could be taken down, even as the program is working. But health-care experts believe Pittsburgh can be used as a model of a region that navigated rough waters on its own and succeeded despite the lack of help from the federal government.
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 11.22/11.29.2017
AFTER THE ACA was signed into law, Fein-
stein and other leaders from the Pittsburgh region were invited to have a meeting with Obama and his staff in Washington, D.C. She says Obama met with her group for two hours and that he was straight with them. Pittsburgh would not be receiving much help from the feds, since those resources would be allocated to the Philadelphia area and its significantly higher population. Regardless, Feinstein says she left inspired. “[Obama] made it sound like he really believed in us, and that he needed us,” says Feinstein. “He needed all of us to pull together to make sure people got insured. We left, and we couldn’t have been more fired up.” From there, organizations stepped up. Local libraries expanded their computerlog-in times so people could enroll easier. Giant Eagle set up tables at its grocery stores where questions about the ACA could be answered. Pastors, rabbis and others at various churches and temples helped their congregations learn how to get enrolled. Even Steelers owner Dan Rooney held an enrollment event at Heinz Field to help people get health insurance. It was a coordinated effort, says Nancy Zionts, JHF’s chief operating officer. And all the organizations came together, despite their differences. “It was Pittsburgh; it was collaborative,” says Zionts. “The faith-based groups weren’t afraid to be in same room as Planned Parenthood. They felt this was so close to what their collective missions were, they institutionalized it.” Local foundations, like the Pittsburgh Foundation, put their own money in to fund these efforts, says Zionts. Feinstein adds that regional health-care giant Highmark even offered high-quality insurance plans at good rates so that more Pittsburghers could have access to affordable plans. “We really exceeded expectations. We looked so good,” says Feinstein.
Zionts says she was almost happy the federal government didn’t come in and provide a whole army of navigators to show people how to get health insurance, since Pittsburghers are more likely to listen to their neighbors than to outsiders. And because the Pittsburgh enrollment effort was done by locals helping locals, Zionts is confident the region will continue to see better and better enrollment figures. She says that in the first two weeks of 2017’s open-enrollment period, Pennsylvania had 2.9 million people submit applications for health-insurance coverage, and that 10 percent of those are new applicants who had no prior ACA coverage. (People receiving health insurance through the ACA can be automatically re-enrolled, but the federal government suggests people shop around each year.) “We are keeping our enrollment numbers high.” says Zionts. “It has just continued. And because it wasn’t someone from out of town doing it for us, it was more successful.”
SIGN UP FOR ACA INSURANCE AT WWW.HEALTHCARE.GOV. Enrollment ends Dec. 15. But in spite of the region’s success in implementing the ACA, the program is still under attack by Republicans. Locally, U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-Sewickley) and U.S. Rep. Mike Kelley (R-Butler) both voted to repeal the ACA in a bill that cleared the House, but failed in the U.S. Senate. “Obamacare [ACA] is making insurance unaffordable for those in the individual and small group market, both with and without pre-existing conditions, and the Democrats have no solutions to the problem,” Rothfus said in a May 4 statement. In August, Trump slashed the ACA’s advertising budget from $100 million to $10 million. And currently, Senate Republicans, as part of their tax bill, are even considering ending the ACA’s requirement that people have health insurance. This means that 13 million individuals could leave the marketplace, which would increase premiums for those who remain. Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (DScranton) says that could be devastating for Pennsylvanians. “I don’t understand why a political party thinks the country is better off with people losing their coverage,” said Casey in a Nov. 15 conference call with reporters. “That is literally the Republican position in the health-care debate. It is entirely possible that a huge number of Americans will get a tax CONTINUES ON PG. 10