People can start buying insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace, otherwise referred to as Obamacare or the Federal Health Insurance Exchange, on Wednesday. Last year,
12.2 million people signed up for an ACA health plan through
healthcare.gov or their state’s own health website. Given the dysfunction coming from Washington, D.C., consumer activists are concerned that not as many people will sign up for coverage this year. (Pro-ACA groups have projected anywhere between
1 to
3 million fewer people will enroll.)
This open enrollment period, things will be a little different. Nearly every health expert has found that the change in premium prices this year can largely be attributed to the current administration’s actions on health care. About 2 millionpeople who rely on the ACA for their health insurance and receive no federal assistance will see premium increases that range between 17 to 35 percent for the lowest-cost plans. Additionally, people in eight states, or 29 percent of enrollees, will have only one insurance company option — a nine percent increase from last year. More competition tends to drive costs down. Robust insurer options has always been challenging, even under the Obama administration.
But overall, things aren’t as bad as they could be. And despite President Donald Trump’s intentions, Obamacare isn’t dead. People, who do receive federal assistance for their health insurance, should know that if they take the time to shop, most could purchase a plan similarly priced to last year’s or — in some cases — even cheaper (despite the president’s intentions). The
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and
Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) released reports Monday on how the marketplace fares this year, and it doesn’t bode bad for all consumers. In fact, 80 percent of plans offered on healthcare.gov are $75 or less, just nine percent more than last year,
according to HHS.
The Trump administration is making it harder for people to enroll in the ACA in a number of ways:
-
Shutting down the healthcare.gov website for 12 hours nearly every Sunday
- Cutting funding by 40 percent to groups that help people enroll. (Cuts have shut down or scaled back a handful of navigator groups nationwide.)
- Slashing the advertisement and promotion budget by 90 percent. (Now, most enrollees don’t know about key open enrollment dates.)
- Made premium subsidies less generous at first. (The administration put in place a new rule that tethered the subsidy to a less generous plan.)
This is a pretty bleak description of open enrollment, but it’s not all that way.
To get a good deal, consumers are advised to shop around. This is true for most shopping experiences, but it is especially crucial (and harder) for people looking to buy plans on the Marketplace this year. Last open enrollment period, nearly
3 million people automatically re-enrolled in their health plan. This year, these people — and others tempted to do the same — are being told to browse around first.