Obamacare Symposium in Amarillo: Panhandle Politicians Speak

The Amarillo Area Foundation recently hosted a symposium hoping to provide answers many have about the Affordable Care Act which many have dubbed Obamacare. Health care providers, administrators, business owners, and other citizens came to find out more according to the Amarillo Globe News.

Charlotte Rhodes is the foundation Vice President.  She said, “We wanted to make sure that we did something that was a neutral setting and we wanted to present the facts.”

Panhandle politicians were also present.  Republican State Representatives John T. Smithee and Four Price, and Republican State Sen. KelSeliger, began the discussion.  Seliger spoke of rising health care costs in Texas, and said the time is near when lawmakers would have to have a “substantive discussion” on how those costs will be covered.

“There is no indication there will be a slowdown or cessation of that growth,” said Seliger, “We are headed, I think, for something of a budgetary crisis.” 

Price said state lawmakers achieved a great deal in improving health care during the 83rd Legislative Session. Among those accomplishments were increasing funds for mental health programs, allotting new resources to detect Medicare fraud and other measures. 

He went onto say state lawmakers struggled to address the Affordable Care Act due to the politicized nature of the law and because they received few answers from the federal government over how the law would work. 

More about the symposium can be found here. 

A recent Huffington Post feature said you may hate Obamacare, but it’s saved lives.  Individuals shared how the law has positively made a difference for them on this page.