By Greg Bishop/Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois’ governor is working to build consensus with other governors on how the Affordable Care Act should be reformed.

Gov. Bruce Rauner said Obamacare needs to be reformed because it’s broken.

“Look at what’s happened in our exchanges. Insurance companies are dropping off,” he said. “We don’t have competition and look at the insurance rates on the exchanges. Good grief.”

Castle Group Health President Mark Gurda out of Northbrook, Illinois, said Rauner’s concerns are real, as more insurance providers flee the market place because it’s not profitable. Gurda said the proposed reform looks to change that.

“The [U.S. House] bill does open up the ability for these insurance companies to potentially have the American Health Care Act business be profitable,” Gurda said. “That lends itself to competition.”

Rauner said he’s talking almost daily with members of Congress and other governors to build a consensus on the best way to repeal and replace Obamacare.

But Rauner said he won’t negotiate in the press what he wants to see happen to the ACA.

“I’m saying move slowly. Move thoughtfully. We need to transition this in a careful way,” he said. “We need to minimize the hurt in people’s lives while we try to change the system.”

Rauner expects the measure to change quite a bit in the U.S. Senate.

What’s on the table in Washington D.C. now will lower costs for those under 45, Gurda said, but older Americans will have an immediate increases in premiums.

Gurda also said the proposed reform is not so much repeal and replace as some may portray. The individual mandate will still be law, he said, but under the measure Congress is debating, it would be enforced differently.

“No. There will be no tax. It is a zero tax,” Gurda said. “The mandate still exists but zero tax. But if and when you come back into the system, you will pay a 30 percent penalty for a year and those penalties can be substantial.”