A panel discussion about Obamacare and its future
NORTHUMBERLAND – A newly formed healthcare coalition is holding a meeting Monday to talk about the Affordable Care Act, what it does and doesn’t do, and dispel some myths about ‘Obamacare.’
The Health of the Valley Coalition will hold the event at the Front Street Station in Northumberland at 7pm, and discuss the ACA and its future. Nurse practitioner and educator Karen Wolf, one of the panelists, explains the balanced view they’ll take on the ACA, “Because I believe that it’s important for individuals in the community to clarify their understanding of what they current ACA provides and what some of the issues are with replacing it. There are folks who are saying that the replacement goes too far, and there are other folks who saying we shouldn’t be in health care at all.”
On the panel will be Kendra Aucker, President/CEO, Evangelical Community Hospital, Dr. A. Joseph Layon, the Director of Critical Care, at Geisinger Medical Center, and Dr. Jennifer Rager-Kay of Sunbury Community Hospital. There will be three other panelists and a moderator as well.
Wolf said they hope to dispel a myth that Obamacare along caused sharp increases in healthcare premiums. She said increases to happening annually before the ACA, “If you follow health care back to the 1960s, we’ve seen a steady growth of premiums in health care and one of the things that’s most interesting is that the premiums for some individuals maybe doubled, but for folks under the Affordable Care Act subsidies, it was a reduction of their health care costs.”
The event is at 7pm Monday; you can hear her remarks on WKOK Sunrise at WKOK.com. The new group, the Health of the Valley Coalition, has a Facebook page with more information.