Jay Angoff, director of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department region that includes Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa; and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. by KHI News Service

Talk of repealing the Affordable Care Act is partisan bluster that won’t come to pass even if Republicans sweep the November elections, a top Obama administration health care official predicted at a forum here today.

“Even those people who are talking about repealing, privately, they acknowledge that no, the law is here to stay,” said Jay Angoff, director of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department region that includes Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa.

Angoff said that even if Republicans control the White House and U.S. House following the election, they would not have a large enough majority in the Senate to push through legislation to overturn the law. Senate rules require 60 votes to advance most legislation.

Angoff is a former Missouri insurance commissioner and has served as an advisor to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on health insurance cost and coverage issues. The forum, organized by the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, drew an audience of about 50 people.

'When the dust settles'

Kansas State Rep. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, disputed Angoff’s comments, including taking issue with the director’s analysis of the potential congressional repeal. Denning is the retired chief executive of Discover Vision Centers, which has eight locations in Missouri and Kansas.

Angoff also predicted that states eventually would go along with the expansion of Medicaid eligibility included in the Affordable Care Act.

“When the dust settles,” he said, “states are going to realize what a terrific deal this is.”

In its June 28 ruling on the reform law, the U.S. Supreme Court left it up to the states to decide if they want to participate in the expanded Medicaid program.

Under the law, the federal government would pay 100 percent of the costs of the newly eligible Medicaid enrollees when the provision takes effect in 2014, gradually reducing its share to 90 percent by 2020.

The expanded eligibility would take in low-income residents under the age of 65 who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

Kansas currently covers more than 350,000 individuals under its Medicaid program. Preliminary estimates project the state’s enrollment could increase by about 130,000 individuals under the health law expansion.

The Kansas Medicaid program costs about $2.8 billion a year. The federal government currently covers about 60 percent of the cost.

Good for small business

Angoff also said the Affordable Care Act was a great deal for small businesses, despite the fact that the National Federation of Independent Businesses was a lead challenger of the law in the suit before the Supreme Court.

He noted a provision that provides tax credits to businesses with 25 or fewer workers that offer health insurance to their workers.

Roughly 360,000 small businesses have already received assistance under that program, Angoff said, and more than 1 million more are eligible.

“We think it’s a great victory for the American public,” Angoff said of the Supreme Court decision.

Denning said it wouldn’t take a 60-vote majority in the Senate to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

'No money'

He said the Senate could overturn the act with a simple majority through the budget process, much the way the law was passed in the first place.

He also disagreed that the Medicaid expansion was a good deal.

“This is not free money,” Denning said. “The federal government has no money.”

He said the federal government would have to run up its debt to pay for the Medicaid expansion.

He also said he was concerned that the federal government would pay for the expansion the first few years but then would pull back, leaving states to pick up more and more of the tab.

Denning also said the tax credit program for small businesses has not been nearly as popular as Angoff made it seem.

“He’s just talking sound bite stuff there,” Denning said of Angoff's remarks.

The tax credit program was complicated and resulted in costly plans that insurance brokers had little luck in pushing with their business customers, he said.

→ Full coverage of health reform, including a short video explaining what the law means for you at khi.org/healthreform