Debate over health care rages

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Going without health insurance is a risk. Going without it in Alaska can be a gamble of a much higher order, for this is a place unlike anywhere else in the U.S., a land of pitiless cold, vast expanses and dangerous, back-breaking work such as pulling fishing nets from the water or hauling animal carcasses out of the woods.

And yet many people on the Last Frontier do not carry insurance. For them, the Affordable Care Act just isn’t working.

For reasons that have a lot to do with its sheer size, sparse population and harsh environment, Alaska has some of the highest health care costs in the nation; the most expensive insurance premiums, according to one key measure; and just one insurer in the whole state writing individual policies.

Michael Hutton, who makes a living selling high-performance dog food used by dog sledders, some of whom compete in the grueling Iditarod race, looked at the potential $700-a-month cost of coverage under Obamacare and decided he would rather take his chances and hope he doesn’t get seriously hurt or ill.

“In my age group, it hasn’t been much of an issue,” the 45-year-old Hutton said. But he confessed, “The older you get, the more important it’s going to be.”

Many people in Alaska are frustrated with the cost of required health coverage under President Barack Obama’s signature law and anxious about what the future holds, with President Donald Trump so far unable to deliver on his promise to repeal and replace it with something better.

Income-based subsidies are available under the Affordable Care Act to help many Alaskans buy insurance. But not everyone qualifies, and so some choose to go without.

As of 2015, 13 percent of Alaska residents were uninsured and potentially subject to fines under Obamacare, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, citing the most recent figures available. Five states in all were at 13 percent. Only Georgia (14 percent) and Texas (16 percent) were higher.