Plain Talk With Rob Port

Back in August, during an interview on Plain Talk, North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread said that Congress needed to renew subsidies for Obamacare marketplace policies to avoid a "death spiral" in the insurance market brought on by younger, healthier shoppers reacting to price spikes by giving up their policies. Well, it's December now. The year is almost over, and Congress hasn't acted. Not only have subsidies not been renewed, majority Republicans haven't even unveiled a plan to address that specific problem, or the larger challenge of spiraling health care and health insurance rates. On this episode of Plain Talk, Shelly Ten Napel, CEO of the Community HealthCare Association of the Dakotas, said many of the tens of thousands of families in our region that get their insurance through the federal marketplace could end up paying twice as much. "So, without the enhanced premium tax credits, your percent goes up to 9.16 for that family of four, which is $672 a month," she said. So, it's more than do