More than 14 million Americans have signed up for health insurance during the Affordable Care Act’s 2022 enrollment period, health officials said Thursday, a ‘record’ number for the program given the deadline’s one-month extension and subsidies enacted last year.
Ahead of a Jan. 15 deadline, 10 million people chose programs or were automatically re-enrolled through the federal marketplace and another 4.2 million signed up through their state’s marketplace, according to the Department of Health and Human Services – an 18% increase so far from 2021’s sign-ups.
Top health care officials highlighted the updated numbers and encouraged Americans to take advantage of the last two days of enrollment.
“I want to make one more call to action: Don’t wait, visit Healthcare.gov today. The deadline to sign up for coverage is January 15,” said Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.
The Biden administration had extended the open enrollment deadline one month beyond the usual Dec. 15 cutoff by giving the option to start coverage on Feb. 1 instead of Jan. 1.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra on Thursday also highlighted how plans were cheaper this year due to improvements in Affordable Care Act options and subsidies from the COVID-19 relief bill passed last March.
“I don’t think most people believe what they’re getting. Folks are accustomed to getting scammed,” he told reporters Thursday morning. “There’s still a whole bunch of junk and health insurance plans that are out there that charge you low premiums the way the Affordable Care Act. program does, but they don’t really give you the kind of quality coverage … that the Affordable Care Act provides.”
A new report from HHS found that “the majority of consumers” enrolled in ACA coverage have deductibles under $1,000.
Sec. Becerra and Administrator Brooks-LaSure credited the American Rescue Plan’s temporary expansion of premium subsidies, including to a broader number of people based on a new, higher income threshold above the poverty level.
And, they said, state and local “navigators” — people or organizations who help people shop for health care coverage — have also played a huge role after another $80 million in grants went to navigator programs last year. There are now about 1,500 around the country.
One navigator, Jodi Ray of the University of South Florida, said the additional funding had been critical to outreach in a state that hasn’t opted in to Medicaid expansion. Nearly 2.6 million people in Florida had enrolled for 2022 as of this week.
“We’ve seen amazing results on social media, as well as in the volume of calls we’ve received from people across Florida asking for help,” she said. “We are going into areas of the state that haven’t heard about the marketplace in recent years, trying to target those most in need of help.”
Among the most-enrolled states, another 1.7 million people in Texas are registered for ACA coverage as of the department’s latest numbers by state.
