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Federal Secretary To Discuss ‘Obamacare’ In Charleston
By: Associated Press
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Federal health Secretary Sylvia Burwell plans to join a discussion in her native West Virginia on the federal health law that expanded insurance coverage to 165,000 residents.
The Affordable Care Act is a signature Obama administration initiative that president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to at least partly roll back.
Trump has praised its guaranteed insurance coverage of people with pre-existing conditions and allowing young adults to remain on parents’ policies until age 26.
That 2010 law, called “Obamacare,” established federally supported exchanges where almost 13 million U.S. residents have enrolled for commercial insurance, some qualifying for subsidies.
Another 7 million people joined expanded Medicaid for poor and disabled residents.
West Virginia reports covering 179,653 more people in Medicaid by raising income eligibility to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.