Some El Pasoans concerned about the fate of Obamacare

Nearly 70,000 El Paso County residents are enrolled in Obamacare.

Many are worried President-Elect Donald Trump, who called Obamacare a disaster, will repeal the law.

Friday, Trump told the Wall Street Journal “Either Obamacare will be amended, or repealed or replaced.”

“I don’t wanna lose my insurance,” said El Pasoan Roya Mostajeran, who has been diagnosed with a heart condition that has made it difficult to find an insurance company willing to cover her. “Then Obama came and I got insurance. I was very happy. Now again, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The results of this week’s election have her concerned. With Trump vowing to amend, repeal or replace Obamacare, she went to Project Amistad to re-enroll, worried about her future.

“I want to know what’s going to happen,” she said, “if i’m going to keep my insurance.”

“Our clients have been coming in and expressing some serious concerns about whether this is all for naught,” said Roy Ortega, community relations manager for Amistad. The Obamacare navigator in El Paso has been seeing 20 to 30 clients a day since the enrollment period began last week.

“None of that is going to happen in a very quick period of time. It could be years even. So from that standpoint, our agency is assuring our clients that are coming in to obtain affordable care plans that nothing is going to happen right now,” Ortega said.

Ortega also addressed rising premiums. Rates are expected to climb at least 22 percent and the number of plans is decreasing.

“The Obama administration responded almost immediately with higher tax credits, which means if they see an increase in their monthly premiums, the administration is going to increase the subsidy to offset that increase,” Ortega said. “Eighty-five percent of our clients are eligible to receive those subsidies.”

Trump says he’ll address sky-rocketing costs, including deductibles and co-pays, with tax-advantaged health care savings accounts and by allowing Americans to purchase no-frills catastrophic insurance.