- Interest in Obamacare brought about 100 people to a

despite intermittent cold rain. The event sponsored by the Huntsville South civic association features hospital CEOs, a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama representative and other experts. Live-blogging will begin below during the 7 p.m. presentations.

8:35 p.m. -

Very few questions asked by the audience tonight.

8:30 p.m.

- Question period opens with Huntsville Hospital CEO David Spillers explaining his prediction that 30 Alabama hospitals will fail. Without a Medicaid expansion in the state, Spillers said, there is no way enough uninsured people in rural and small town Alabama can afford hospital care and keep small hospitals financially viable.

8:20 p.m.

- Huntsville physician Dr. John Sowell says the regulations being written in Washington to enforce the new law will definitely come between him and his patients. He will have to match his treatments with those requirements beginning next year or not get paid, Sowell said. "This will put me between a rock and a hard place," Sowell said.

8:10 p.m.

- Patterson says the rate increases sent out late last year had four causes: the required end of pre-screening for medical conditions, the end of delays in coverages for pre-existing conditions, spreading the cost of policies across the entire pool of those insured, and fees and taxes from the new law. Those fees and taxes totaled roughly 6 percent of premiums for individual policies, 4 percent for group plans.



8:05 p.m.

- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama attorney Michael Patterson says the Obamacare website has "shown substantial improvement" and enrollment has been steady. In Alabama, Patterson said, 200 signed up on the exchanges in October, 3,000 in November and just under 29,000 in December.

7:55 p.m

. - Crestwood Hospital CEO Pam Hudson says nurse practitioners and physician assistants (also called physician extenders) will be "the way we take care of people" in America. There are not enough physicians, Hudson says.

7:49 p.m.

- Both of the hospital CEOs on the panel are concerned that Alabama isn't expanding Medicaid. It's driving people to emergency rooms after they have waited until they have no other choice but go.

7:37 p.m.

- David Spillers says between 30 and 40 Alabama hospitals are at risk of closing because of the changes in American healthcare. Many hospitals in the state are losing money.

7:29 p.m.

- Huntsville Hospital CEO David Spillers says America is moving toward a country "where more people have insurance, but are under-insured." Deductibles up to $6,000 will be hard for many people to pay, Spillers said. People will postpone care. "We've had a child in the emergency room with a ruptured appendix ...," Spillers said. "The family had moved to a high-deductible plan." The family treated the girl with aspirin and she "almost died," Spillers said.

7:24 p.m.

- Fred Coffey says he knows many small Huntsville businesses that provide health insurance for its employees even though the Affordable Care Act only applies to businesses with at least 50 workers. They have to in order to recruit workers in Huntsville's work environment, Coffey said.



7:15 p.m. -

Huntsville attorney Fred Coffey Jr. says Obamacare will be almost completely implemented before the next presidential election. In his judgment, the law may be amended, but it will not be repealed. "I have not found many people that hate all of the Affordable Care Act," Coffey said.

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(This story was updated at 8:15 p.m. to correct the spelling of Huntsville Hospital CEO David Spiller's name)