HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA): “Iowa is withdrawing its application for an ambitious program to reshape the Affordable Care Act after federal officials laid out tough conditions for its approval, a decision that signals limits to states’ efforts to alter parts of the health law.
Iowa had applied for federal permission to move forward under a provision of the ACA that allows states to waive certain parts of the law. Though the Trump administration initially signaled it welcomed such initiatives, states have recently gotten mixed results for their applications. The foundering of Iowa’s much-watched effort will likely be seen as another caution flag as other states consider their own future proposals…
Iowa’s governor, Republican Kim Reynolds, faulted the 2010 health law for Iowa’s individual insurance market problems and the failure of the waiver application, and she called the ACA ‘unworkable.’
Around 72,000 Iowans currently buy individual plans, either through the exchange or outside it. The state’s waiver application suggested that as many as 22,000 might drop out of the market if the status quo continued. However, patient groups said the Iowa program, if implemented, could hurt lower-income ACA enrollees.”
-Anna Wilde Mathews, “Iowa Halts Effort to Overhaul Affordable Care Act,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 23, 2017 10:54pm