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Washington Insurance Commissioner Concerned About American Health Care Act

Photo courtesy of http://mikekreidler.com/

Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has misgivings about the republican’s American Health Care Act, which is being discussed in committee hearings.

Kreidler told SPR yesterday that removing the individual mandate that requires citizens to have medical insurance is likely to cause a chain reaction where healthy people pull out of insurance plans, and the premiums skyrocket.

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Kreidler says despite claims by republicans that Obamacare itself was in a death spiral, that has not been the case in Washington State.

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Insurance commissioner Kreidler says the states that have had the most problems with ACA did a bad job of putting it place, in part, because they have Republican leadership, and wanted Obamacare to fail. He cites some states that refused to take the option of expanding Medicaid, and others that allowed older polices to continue, so there was both a good and bad risk pool of enrollees, which in many cases caused an escalation of the price of premiums.

Steve was part of the Spokane Public Radio family for many years before he came on air in 1999. His wife, Laurie, produced Radio Ethiopia in the late 1980s through the '90s, and Steve used to “lurk in the shadowy world” of Weekend SPR. Steve has done various on air shifts at the station, including nearly 15 years as the local Morning Edition host. Currently, he is the voice of local weather and news during All Things Considerd, writing, editing, producing and/or delivering newscasts and features for both KPBX and KSFC. Aside from SPR, Steve ,who lives in the country, enjoys gardening, chickens, playing and listening to music, astronomy, photography, sports cars and camping.