Pages from the U.S. Affordable Care Act health insurance website healthcare.gov are seen on a computer screen in New York on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
This summer, shortly after Congress passed the reconciliation bill, Congregation Beth Sholom hosted an Anchorage community symposium on the impacts of the legislation. The president and CEO of the Alaska Hospital & Healthcare Association spoke about the new Medicaid regulations tucked into the legislation — rules that, he warned, were designed to make it harder for people to qualify for coverage. The estimate: About 30,000 Alaskans could lose access.
He explained that a single mistake — by the state or an applicant — could mean being “pushed out” of Medicaid and losing health insurance altogether. I had no idea how quickly that prediction would become personal.
My family, like many in Alaska, relies on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace for our insurance. My children are covered by Denali KidCare, the state’s Medicaid program for kids. Our ordeal began when I received a letter stating my ACA coverage would be terminated in three weeks because I supposedly qualified for Medicaid. After hours of calls, we learned the issue was a clerical error: My name had accidentally been switched with my son’s.
It was an obvious fix that took 2½ weeks to resolve, which was frighteningly close to the deadline of losing my health care coverage.
The only way to correct it was through an Alaska Medicaid specialist, but despite calling daily at 8 a.m., we couldn’t reach one. The call center employees were polite and sympathetic but powerless. My issue was finally resolved only after my local state representatives intervened.
My story is not unique. In fact, 30,000 Alaskans are attempting to access Alaska Medicaid Specialists everyday, but not everyone has the schedule, capacity or wherewithal to navigate the complex bureaucracies of our Department of Public Assistance. And the Department of Public Assistance does not have the resources to help so many Alaskans in need at once.
Unfortunately, the reconciliation bill all but guarantees that this process will be much more difficult when it becomes law in January. It’s a bill that swaps our social safety net for lower taxes for some. And while the reconciliation bill does not cut Medicaid directly, it will turn our overworked and undervalued social safety net into a cruel bureaucracy —a bureaucracy with the priority of saving money rather than helping sick Americans receive affordable health care.
It’s time that our social safety net becomes the subject of our local and national conversation. I believe that it is our government’s responsibility to help Americans afford health care, and today this is a value I need to fight to protect not just for my own care, but on behalf of all Alaskans and Americans who rely on our social safety net to be healthy and financially secure. Programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security are some of America’s most pivotal institutions, but they are only as important as the value we place on them.
These institutions should not be taken for granted. And while not every American requires them, every American will be affected by their decline.
In the book of Leviticus, God commands that a person should not stand idly by the blood of another. I believe everyone deserves access to comprehensive and affordable health care, and I believe this right is given to us from the Bible, and I believe that the Bible demands we fight for it on behalf of each other. Instead of asking how much it will cost, we should be asking what is affordable health care worth?
Abram Goodstein is rabbi of Congregation Beth Sholom in Anchorage.
• • •
The Anchorage Daily News welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.