After another push-back from the Obama Administration for the Affordable Care Act, concerns about its affects and legitimacy have resounded across Alaska.
On Monday after the White House further delayed the health insurance mandate for medium-sized employers, Senator Lisa Murkowski’s office released a statement calling it “broken” based on the 28 changes that have been made since the health care law went into effect.
At the Kenai City Council Meeting last week Mayor Pat Porter requested an overview from the City Finance Director to clarify the effects and expects to have the overview by April.
Mayor Porter: “I do understand though that if we have workers that are like 30 hours a week or more, that they will have to be covered under insurance. So we’re not sure what that’s going to do to our summer hires that we have, ya know the college kids, the high school students that we have that come back and want to work during the summer.”
Last night Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Member Wayne Ogle asked Borough Mayor Mike Navarre if there could be a comprehensive overview of the affects on the Borough as well, and voiced his concerns to us.
Ogle: “Well my main concern is that it seems to be changing continuously, one day it’s one way and then we hear another day it’s changed to something else. Inviable deadlines have moved forward a year or six months or something like that. So it’s very hard to pin down.”