Clock is ticking on health care reform

Having personally witnessed the mass exodus of health insurance providers from the individual exchange here in Illinois, the writing is on the wall, and it says "Obamacare is Failing."

Chicagoland recently lost one of only four remaining health insurers who provide individual health plans - Harken Health - when it announced it was closing its doors following $64 million in losses last year alone.

Still there exists a false narrative and partisan criticism around the American Health Care Act, so as a health insurance broker, I'd like to set the record straight.

The AHCA provides billions in tax credits to help people better afford health insurance; ensures people with pre-existing conditions will receive coverage; removes the stifling individual and employer mandates that destroy growth; incentivizes young, healthy Americans to get coverage, which reduces costs across the board; and restores competition to the bleeding individual marketplace.

Those who promulgate a narrative that the bill isn't enough of a "repeal" do not understand how the U.S. Senate works. This was the best version of reform that could have passed without a full 60-vote majority, and we're lucky that our Representatives Roskam, Kinzinger and Hultgren understood that and pushed it forward.

Insurance companies are finalizing their 2018 rates and benefits packages and they are due for review by June 21. If the Senate doesn't act quickly, thousands of folks in the individual market will not get the desperately needed relief from skyrocketing premiums, fewer choices, and intervention of government into their medical decisions. The clock is ticking.

C. Steven Tucker

Bolingbrook