Biden, Obama mark 12 years under Obama’s health care law - St. Paul Pioneer Press

WASHINGTON — With hugs, laughs and good-natured ribbing, former President Barack Obama on Tuesday returned to the White House for the first time in more than five years to savor the 12th anniversary of his signature health care law and give a boost to President Joe Biden’s efforts to expand it.

To that end, Biden announced his administration is ending a notorious “glitch” that has taken the “affordable” out of the Affordable Care Act for about 5 million Americans – and for which one Minnesota family has become a poster child.

They sat in the audience of the East Room of the White House as Biden and Obama exchanged bromantic platitudes and spoke of the growing legacy of the ACA, which has survived repeated repeal attempts by Republicans.

Sign-ups under the health law have increased under Biden’s stewardship, and more generous taxpayer subsidies have cut costs for enrollees, albeit temporarily.

Biden, who was Obama’s No. 2 when “Obamacare” became law in March 2010, gave all the credit for the original law to the former president.

“It’s because of you,” Biden said after good-naturedly introducing himself as Obama’s vice president. Biden said the law “shows hope leads to change,” a play on Obama’s “hope and change” campaign slogan.

Obama’s last time in the White House was Jan. 20, 2017, when he left to escort his successor, a president-elect bent on overturning Obamacare, to the Capitol to be inaugurated.

“It’s good to be back in the White House. It’s been a while,” Obama said after he was introduced by Vice President Kamala Harris. He opened by referring to Biden as “vice president” before acknowledging the joke and embracing his former No. 2.

Obama said he and Biden accomplished “a lot” in their eight years as stewards of the country, but “nothing made me prouder than providing better health care and more protections to millions of people across this country.”

“The ACA was an example of why you run for office in the first place,” Obama said, calling it the “high point of my time here.”

Biden in 2010 memorably called the ACA a “big (expletive) deal.” Its staying power has been enhanced by three Supreme Court victories and an emphatic thumbs-down vote by the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., which took the wind out of President Donald Trump’s efforts to repeal and replace it.

The law was such a bugaboo in 2010 that Democrats rarely invoked it as they went into a midterm election that turned out to be, in Obama’s own words, a “shellacking.” Now, Democrats are hoping the political equation will work to their advantage, and that a focus on shoring up the health law can help them avoid a debacle at the polls this November.

Obama likes to refer to his health care law as a “starter home” that Americans can build upon, gradually reducing the 9 percent share of the population that remains uninsured. The rate was nearly 15 percent in 2013, before the coverage provisions of the law took effect. Between the health law’s Medicaid expansion and its health insurance markets, more than 30 million people are now estimated to be getting coverage.

Shortly after taking office, Biden opened up the health insurance markets to anyone seeking coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic, and his coronavirus relief bill provided a significant, though temporary, increase in financial assistance. The result was a record 14.5 million people signed up for subsidized private coverage.

When it comes to how to keep that trend going, Obama and Biden have no shortage of options to discuss.

‘FAMILY GLITCH’

The Biden administration has been working on a fix to what’s known as the law’s “family glitch,” a quirk estimated to be keeping about 5 million people from getting coverage under the law. The White House announced the new policy proposal Tuesday.

People tripped up by the family glitch are dependents of workers who have an offer of employer coverage that the government interprets as being affordable. As a rule, people with affordable employer coverage are not eligible for taxpayer-subsidized ACA plans.

But the issue with the current interpretation is that affordability is determined by the cost for employee-only coverage, and not more expensive family policies. Workers able to afford their own share may not be able to cover premiums for the entire family. So the family is cut out of ACA coverage.

That’s exactly what happened to Allie Krueger and her growing family when she was laid off from her job of 16 years early in the pandemic.

Suddenly, health insurance for the family – which now includes three children under the age of 3 – was costing 25 percent of her household income, which was solely that of her husband.

His care was subsidized, but because of the family glitch, hers wasn’t, and nor were their children’s. The Pioneer Press featured the Kruegers’ travails in a story over the summer.

Flummoxed, Krueger, who lives in the south metro, contacted U.S. Rep. Angie Craig (D-2nd).

Craig and other lawmakers pressured administration officials to get rid of the glitch, and she was part of a group that proposed legislation in Congress to address the problem.

In a statement Tuesday, Craig said, “I’m so thrilled that the administration is taking this long-overdue action to lower costs for working families like the Kruegers – and I couldn’t be happier that Allie and her family were able to join me at the White House on this special day.”

Minnesota has a long history of trying to ditch the glitch. In 2014, then-U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) was the lead sponsor of a proposal that would have put the affordability test to the whole family, not just the individual.

‘THRILLED’

Krueger, her husband Bobby Bouley, and her father Rick Krueger sat in the third row of the East Room Tuesday as Biden, flanked by a small group of politicians including Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Harris, Craig and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), signed an executive order that will help clear the family glitch by Jan. 1.

A Biden administration regulation addressing the issue recently cleared White House review. The intent of the original policy was to prevent people with employer coverage from going into the health law’s subsidized markets, but advocates say it has proven too restrictive.

The White House estimates that the fix would help 200,000 people get insurance and bring costs down for nearly 1 million more. The fix comes with a price tag for taxpayers as a whole, as various estimates have put the cost of expanding the subsidies at $4 billion to $7 billion.

Krueger has done the math for her own family. She estimates they will qualify for $600 per month once the glitch’s restriction is removed.

“I’m thrilled,” she said in an interview shortly after the event. “It’s absolutely unbelievable. Truly, it’s a story about democracy working. I reached out to my congressperson, and they made it happen, and now I’m here at the White House watching it happen.”

The journey has taken Krueger from a career in the entertainment sector to a brush with activism, and she said she’s not sure where it will take her next.

“I would like to become an activist in making sure people get affordable health care,” she said. “I truly got to experience what this is like. But I’m plenty busy with three kids under the age of 3.”

There are more fundamental issues for the two presidents to consider as well, both policy-wise and politically.

Unless Democrats in Congress finally coalesce around a version of Biden’s social legislation, his enhanced financial assistance for millions purchasing ACA plans will expire at the end of this year. A return to higher premiums would likely trigger an increase in the number of uninsured people, a political embarrassment for Democrats committed to expanding coverage.

The Biden legislation, which passed the House but sputtered in the Senate, also includes a mechanism for providing coverage to as many as 4 million uninsured low-income adults in states that have refused the health law’s Medicaid expansion. It would deliver on Biden’s campaign promise to build on existing government programs to move the U.S. closer to coverage for all.

In addition to talking health care at the White House, Biden and Obama met over lunch, recalling their weekly ritual when Biden served as Obama’s vice president.

“They are real friends, not just Washington friends,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Vice President Kamala Harris called on Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs and to make permanent subsidies for the Affordable Care Act that were included in Biden’s pandemic relief bill. Harris also called out 12 states that have not expanded eligibility for Medicaid.

This story contains reporting from Pioneer Press staff writer Dave Orrick and Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar.

source: https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/05/biden-obama-mark-12-years-under-obamas-health-care-law/

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