Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/556412
ByRicardoAlonso- Zaldivar The Associated Press WASHINGTON Nearly a million people signed up for health insurance under President Barack Obama's law even after the official enrollment season ended, helping push the share of uninsured Americans be- low 10 percent and under- scoring how hard it could be for Republicans to dis- mantle the program. The Health and Human Services Department said Thursday that 943,934 new customers have signed up since open enrollment ended on Feb. 22, benefit- ing from "special enroll- ment periods" keyed to life changes and other circum- stances. It's a flexible feature also common to the coverage people get through their jobs. The sign-up oppor- tunities are available year- round through HealthCare. gov and state-run insurance markets. The steadily growing number of Americans with coverage under the five-year- old law could make it more difficult for Republicans to repeal "Obamacare" even if they win the White House and keep control of Congress in next year's elections. Several of the GOP presi- dential candidates have in- sisted they would scrap the law, but they would face the prospect of stripping millions of their insurance. Republican lawmakers also talk of replacing the Afford- able Care Act, but the GOP has yet to rally behind an alternative. Thursday's latest num- bers are the first since the Supreme Court upheld health insurance subsidies in all 50 states, turning back a challenge from the law's opponents that would have undermined coverage across much of the country. The new figures, through June 30, are preliminary and come with a couple of caveats. The final tally could be higher, because HHS counted only the 37 states using the HealthCare. gov website. Or it could dip lower, because the initial numbers did not winnow out customers who failed to seal the deal by paying their first month's premium. That final count takes longer. Nonetheless, HealthCare. gov CEO Kevin Counihan said the results are "further evidence that the health insurance marketplace is working for America's fam- ilies." Futureaffordability Earlier this week, two separate reports docu- mented progress on in- creasing insurance cover- age in 2015, as the health care law's second year of expanded coverage coin- cided with a steadily im- proving economy. How- ever, a third study raised questions about future af- fordability. Two surveys documented the growing number of Americans with insurance: • The government's Na- tional Health Interview Survey found that 7 mil- lion fewer people were un- insured in the first three months of this year, when compared to the average for all of 2014. The unin- sured rate stood at 9.2 per- cent. Notably, there was an increase in the share of children covered by private plans, reversing a 14-year trend of declining private coverage for kids. • A large independent survey called the Gallup- Healthways Well-Being In- dex found a statistically significant drop in the un- insured rate for most states since the law's big coverage push began at the end of 2013. States that embraced the Medicaid expansion saw bigger declines. Thirty states have done so, plus Washington, D.C. Texas, a bastion of political opposition to the law, was the only state with more than 20 percent of its resi- dents uninsured the first six months of this year. The health care law takes a two-track approach to coverage. HealthCare.gov and state health insurance markets offer subsidized private plans for low-in- come to middle-class house- holds who lack access to job-based insurance. About 10 million people had such coverage through the end of March. Expanded Medic- aid, optional for states, pro- vides coverage for the near- poor, mainly adults with no children at home. The 6-3 Supreme Court decision this summer has buoyed the administration and its supporters. A Gal- lup survey after the rul- ing found that approval of the law had risen to 47 per- cent, the highest level since 2012, almost even with the 48 percent disapproving. However, a third report released this week, from the Urban Institute, warned that progress could stag- nate or even reverse. The nonpartisan research or- ganization is broadly in ac- cord with the goals of the law. While pointing to accom- plishments of the law, the report said that even with taxpayer subsidies the pri- vate coverage provided re- mains a financial stretch for many families. "As a result, many con- sumers could become dis- illusioned, and disenroll- ment rates could increase over time," the report said. Subsidies It recommended changes including more generous subsidies, reduced out-of- pocket costs such as an- nual deductibles and co- payments, and improve- ments to HealthCare.gov's technology infrastructure. The estimated cost — $450 billion to $560 billion over 10 years — probably makes that list a nonstarter for Congress. In the recent Supreme Court case, King v. Bur- well, the law's opponents argued that a precise read- ing only allows the gov- ernment to subsidize pre- miums in states that have set up their own insurance markets. Most have not done so. The administra- tion countered that when the law is read in context, it clearly allows subsidies in all 50 states. The court agreed with Obama. AFFORDABLE CARE ACT Health law sign-ups keep growing; Uninsured now below 10 percent DONRYAN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS The Obama administration says nearly 950,000consumers have signed up for new coverage under the president's health care law, even a er 2015enrollment officially ended. BRENNAN LINSLEY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Water flows through one in a series of retention ponds built to contain and filter out heavy metals and chemicals from the Gold King mine accident in Colorado. By Michael Biesecker, Matthew Brown and P. Solomon Banda The Associated Press SILVERTON, COLORADO The U.S. Environmen- tal Protection Agency an- nounced Thursday that surface-water testing re- vealed very high levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium and other heavy metals as a sickly-yellow plume of mine waste flowed through Colorado. These metals far ex- ceeded government ex- posure limits for aquatic life and humans in the hours after the August 5 spill, which sent 3 mil- lion gallons of wastewa- ter through three Western states and the Navajo na- tion. The EPA, which released the results after 2 a.m. Eastern time under in- creasing political pressure, said its analysis shows the heavy metals quickly re- turned to "pre-event lev- els" once the plume passed through the area it tested, on the Animas River be- tween Silverton, Colorado, and the downstream mu- nicipal water intake for Durango. The abandoned Gold King mine had been slowly leaking a toxic stew for de- cades before an EPA crew accidentally unleashed a torrent of waste during an Aug. 5 inspection. EPA Ad- ministrator Gina McCar- thy has taken full respon- sibility and promised that the agency will pay for any damage. The agency tested for 24 metals at the river's sur- face. One of the most dan- gerous, lead, was found be- low the 14th Street bridge in Silverton at more than 200 times higher than the acute exposure limit for aquatic life, and 3,580 times higher than fed- eral standards for human drinking water. Levels of arsenic were more than 24 times the exposure limit for fish and 823 times the level for hu- man ingestion. Cadmium was found at more than six times the aquatic limit, 33 times that for humans. The 100-mile-long plume has since dissi- pated, its heavy metals set- tling into riverbeds, dur- ing the waste's 300-mile journey toward Lake Pow- ell, where the flow joins the Colorado River that sup- plies water to the South- west. Tests show mine spill unl ea sh ed t ox ic s te w 3 MILLION GALLONS Thiscouldbeyourluckyday by helping a dog or cat find a loving home from... Ad Sponsorship $ 25 Call Suzy 737-5056 RedBluffDailyNews ELI Paws & Claws TEHAMACOUNTYANIMAL SHELTER 1830 Walnut Street P.O. Box 38 • Red Bluff, CA 96080 (530) 527-3439 CORNING ANIMAL SHELTER 4312 Rawson Rd. Corning, CA 96021 (530) 824-7054 ADOPT A PET TODAY Please help sponsor a classroom subscription Call Kathy at (530) 737-5047 to find out how. 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