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Our View

‘A_ordable’ health care becoming even less so

Since 2013, when Arkansas lawmakers created the controversial private option, the state’s version of Obamacare, enrollment has exceeded all expectations creating serious concerns as to how to deal with soaring costs of providing free or subsidized health care for over 300,000 “poor” recipients.

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson successfully managed to convince lawmakers last year to endorse “Arkansas Works”, a replacement for the private option, which is designed to move enrollees into subsidized, job-based coverage and off government funded subsidies as well as other measures designed to cut costs to the taxpayers.

When Arkansas lawmakers jumped on board with Obama and his so-called and deceptive “Affordable Health Care Act” three years ago millions of tax dollars have been spent encouraging qualified applicants to enroll. It was predicted at the time that an estimated 250,000 Arkansans would line up for this socialistic health care plan. Well, to the total surprise of all those bureaucrats and liberal politicians that think Obamacare is the greatest thing since grits well over 300,000 Arkansans are taking full advantage of this government subsidy while the rest of us are paying through the nose for health care and prescription drugs.

We remember well Obama shoving this garbage down our throats by saying, “If you like your doctor, you’re going to be able to keep your doctor,” and “if you like your insurance plan, you will keep it…”

The biggest lie Obama said was: “Insurance companies can no longer impose lifetime limits on the amount of care you receive. They can no longer jack up your premiums without reason.”

We’ve been duped and we’ve been deceived as evidence in Obama’s administration announcing just the other day that health care premiums for the mid-level plan are set to rise an average of 25 percent next year in the 39 states that use the federal HealthCare.gov.

And get this people, according to the Obama administration’s own figures, the average premium increase for a popular “silver” plan will rise 116 percent in Arizona; 40 percent in North Carolina, and 53 percent in Pennsylvania.

The average middle-class Arkansas taxpayers, struggling to make a living and can’t take advantage of this free government-subsidized health care are finding themselves unable to pay the hundreds of dollars a month for coverage. Some families are seeing their monthly health care premiums just to near $900, not counting the deductibles or their share of prescription costs.

Let us also not forget that beginning next year Arkansas will be forced to pay a portion of Obamacare which led Hutchinson to convince lawmakers to go along with is Arkansas Works plan that takes effect Jan. 1.

One of steps lawmakers want to take is to continue preventing the Arkansas Insurance Department from promoting enrollment in the state’s expanded Medicaid program next year, which they hope will slow the pace of enrollment.

In order to better control this serious problem Hutchinson wants the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace to encourage businesses to sign up for financial help under Arkansas Works to provide jobbased coverage to their employees rather than telling them to apply for the state’s free or subsidized plan.

The fact of the matter that these liberal bureaucrats and politicians need to realize that Arkansas is giving away more insurance than it can afford, plain and simple.