November 29, 2018 

By Niele Anderson 

Contributing Writer 

 

The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare whichever you prefer, open enrollment began on November 1. If you’re wondering why you haven’t seen any promotion or advertisement it is because the Trump administration cut the outreach and education budgets by $90 million, or 90 percent, in August.

 

Open enrollment ends December 15. We caught up with Congressmember Maxine Waters to discuss the significance of the Trump Administrations actions,” So many people in the black community die from preventable diseases and of course we’ve been turned down for years because of pre-existing conditions. With Obamacare we were able to finely get it into law and it prevented insurance companies from turning you down because you have a pre-existing condition.

 

Waters went on to share the importance of getting the word out about open enrollment which is in its 5th cycle, “It’s extremely important for everybody to sign up. The more people you have the stronger the insurance is and the less cost of the premium. If we don’t have enough people signing up then the premiums increase”. She continued, “we’ve got to get the word out every way we can. You’ve got to get enrolled during the open enrollment periods if we want to save Obamacare. This administration is trying to kill it. Obamacare is one of the most significant things that has happened in public policy”.

 

In 2019 Waters who is one of Trump’s fiercest and harshest critics is set to become chair of the Financial House Committee. The house committees have been limited to questioning and holding the Trump administration accountable because of a Republican lead Congress. In 2019 that changes for the House of Representatives. We asked Waters what would be her focus as chair of the Financial House Committee for 2019 she stated, “well there’s been a lot of speculation about what I’m going to do as the chair of the financial service committee. The right wing would like to say all she’s going to do is use all her time to go after Trump because she’s the one calling for his impeachment. Others are saying no I think she’s going to focus on all the issues that are in that committee and there absolutely right.”  She continued, “we’ve got a lot of work to do in that committee aside from just paying attention to the president.”

 

To sign up for Obamacare visit www.healthcare.gov. To watch the full Maxine Waters interview, visit www.lasentinel.net.

Category: Business