News Local/State

U.S. Supreme Court Case Could Prove Major Hurdle For Healthcare Law In Illinois

 

                                    

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Illinois was facing dual deadlines last month when lawmakers made a final effort to create its own marketplace the first with looming New Year which they blew past last week losing out on as much as two hundred seventy million dollars The second deadline comes from a case waiting to be heard in front of the U.S. Supreme Court which has the potential to strip subsidies from consumers in states without their own health exchanges like Illinois. Mark Rust is a health care attorney based in Chicago. He says this could have major consequences for the thousands who signed up for coverage with help from the government because most of them fall with them.

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Income ranges where the purchase of insurance would be very difficult if not impossible .

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The next cutoff for enrolling in plans under Obamacare is January fifteenth for coverage beginning in February.

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Rust says Illinois will have to do a lot better in these upcoming enrollment periods to meet its coverage goals it is certainly the case that we did not come anywhere close in Illinois to hitting the targets that we thought were out there of people who were uninsured and you needed to get insured.

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But he says estimates project estates in a moment rate could improve this year. I’m Hannah Meisel Illinois Public Media.

Illinois lawmakers missed a Jan. 1 deadline to approve a state-run health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act. Without its own exchange, the state forfeits millions of federal dollars while leaving consumers vulnerable to paying more for insurance.

Illinois was facing dual deadlines last month when lawmakers made a final effort to create its own marketplace. The first was the looming New Year -- which they blew past last week, losing out on as much as 270 million dollars.

The second deadline comes from a case waiting to be heard in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, which has the potential to strip subsidies from consumers in states without their own health exchanges, like Illinois.

Mark Rust is a healthcare attorney based in Chicago. He says this could have major consequences for the thousands who've signed up for coverage with help from the government.

"Because most of them fall within income ranges where the purchase of insurance would be very difficult, if not impossible," he said.

The next deadline for enrolling in plans under Obamacare is January 15th, for coverage beginning in February. Rust says Illinois will have to do a lot better in these upcoming enrollment periods to meet its coverage goals.

"It is certainly the case that we did not come anywhere close in Illinois to hitting the targets that we thought were out there of people who were uninsured and could get insured."

But he says projections say the state's enrollment rate could improve this year.

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