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Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment Draws Nearly 14 million Sign-Ups. Provide your feedback regarding the 14 million sign-ups.
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Almost 14 million people have signed up for health-insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act's open-enrollment period ending Saturday, an increase driven by a robust outreach campaign and broader consumer subsidies.
More than 13.8 million consumers have signed up for 2022 healthcare coverage on the federal exchange, HealthCare.gov, and in states that run their own exchanges during the current enrollment period, officials said. That marks a 21% increase in sign-ups on the federal exchange compared with the previous year's open-enrollment period, officials said.
Enrollment in recent years has largely held steady, with about 11.4 million consumers signing up for coverage for 2020. Shoring up the Obama-era health law has been a major campaign goal for President Biden and Democrats who sought to drive sign-ups with financial assistance to consumers.
The administration is crediting the faster sign-up pace to Democrats' $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package, which included a two-year, temporary expansion of subsidies that lowered premiums for millions of consumers. The law also provided subsidies to more people earning above the federal poverty level, without requiring them to pay a specific percentage of their income on healthcare.
The Biden administration extended the 2021 open-enrollment period that began Nov. 1 by 30 days. The expanded time came after a special sign-up period from mid-February through Aug. 15, when more than 2.5 million people signed up for coverage.
And the administration also launched one of the largest outreach campaigns to date, with increased sign-up help available at no cost to consumers. Officials increased funding for navigators, which help people sign up for coverage, under $80 million in grant funding.
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Monday that the number of sign-ups shows the congressional relief legislation is working.
"The American Rescue Plan helped lower healthcare premiums, resulting in record-setting savings for millions of people across the country," she said. "For those who need affordable healthcare coverage, there is still time to enroll."
Republicans who oppose the health law say it has driven up premiums and represents government overreach. Their repeated attempts to repeal the ACA or have it knocked down by the courts have failed.
The Biden administration's efforts are a reversal from the actions of the Trump administration, which sought to undermine the ACA. Trump administration officials cut funding to navigators and reduced advertising and outreach for the ACA to $10 million from $100 million.
Democrats say the ACA has helped lower the uninsured rate and provided essential coverage, especially during a pandemic marked by significant churn in job markets.
Democrats have been seeking to preserve the expanded subsidies, which remain in effect through 2022, in Mr. Biden's social spending bill, but the outlook remains uncertain because Sen. Joe Manchin has opposed the roughly $2 trillion package. Some Democrats are interested in breaking out the health components as its own legislative vehicle.
During the current open-enrollment period, more than 9.7 million people enrolled in, or were automatically re-enrolled, in coverage in the 33 states that use HealthCare.gov through Dec. 15. In the 18 states and the District of Columbia that use their own exchanges, more than four million people selected plans or were re-enrolled through Dec. 25 in coverage starting this year, officials said.
Total nationwide plan selections include two million consumers, or 15% of the total, who are new to ACA coverage for 2022. Florida, Texas and Georgia-which are among the 12 states that haven't adopted full Medicaid expansion-saw some of the largest sign-up numbers.