Month: August 2025

NOTN- A community panel will gather today at Centennial Hall to discuss sweeping federal health care changes that could significantly affect Alaskans’ access to coverage.

The event, hosted by AK Advocates, will run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and will focus on the impact of recent federal legislation on Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace.

Medicaid is a state and federal partnership that provides health care to people who do not have the income to purchase their own health insurance.

Panelists said Alaska faces unique challenges because of its high costs and limited workforce. The new federal law requires Medicaid eligibility checks every six months instead of annually, adds work requirements for recipients, and lets temporary premium tax credits for Marketplace plans expire at the end of 2025.

“We are a very expensive state to provide healthcare in, said Kim Champney, executive director of the Alaska Association on Developmental Disabilities, “you have to travel to see specialists, workforce is very limited, so our state has really struggled, I think, to keep up with the cost of Medicaid.”

In Alaska, where the Division of Public Assistance is still struggling with post-pandemic backlogs in food stamp and Medicaid processing, officials warn the added workload could further strain the system.

“These policy changes are going to result in fewer people having health insurance,” said Teri Tibbett, the panel’s coordinator and moderator, “So what are we as a community, what are we going to do when we have so many people that are going to be uninsured, the people who are going to not have Medicaid anymore, the people that are not going to have health insurance through the Marketplace? What are we going to do as a community to help those folks get their health care?”

Anton Rieselbach, a program associate with the Juneau Economic Development Council, warned that ending the expanded tax credits could cause Marketplace premiums to expand. “The big takeaway here is that a lot of individuals are going to see their monthly premium costs balloon significantly, especially those individuals who fall in their income level above 400% of the federal poverty line, essentially, in 2021 the eligibility for premium tax credits was expanded to higher income earners, and that is going away. So a lot of individuals are going to be seeing their premiums balloon by over $1,000 per month, potentially, which is going to have devastating effects on the health care.”

Panelists said they hope the discussion will help Alaskans understand the changes, prepare for rising costs, and organize advocacy efforts. “The bill has passed, we can’t stop that,” Champney said. “Now we can really influence implementation. And so I think talking through that as a community, how do we partner and collaborate and advocate so that we make sure people get what they need.”

The panel is free and open to the public.