More Than 20 Million People Have Signed Up for Obamacare Plans, Blowing by Record

[Edge-]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/10/u...smid=url-share

More than 20 million people have signed up for plans on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces during the annual open enrollment period, far surpassing last year’s record of more than 16 million enrollments, the Biden administration announced on Wednesday.

The figures were a landmark moment for the 2010 health law, underscoring the significance of enhanced subsidies for Americans and the continuing reach of the marketplaces after years of Republican efforts to whittle them down.

“The marketplaces are getting stronger and more embedded into the fabric of U.S. health care,” said Adrianna McIntyre, a health policy expert at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “The more the marketplaces grow, the more it enhances their stability.”

The Biden administration revealed last month that on Dec. 15 — the deadline to sign up for coverage that began on Jan. 1 — almost 750,000 people signed up for a marketplace plan on HealthCare.gov, the largest single-day total. The full tally could grow in the coming days; the deadline to sign up for plans is 5 a.m. Eastern on Jan. 17, giving Americans coverage that begins next month.

“The Affordable Care Act is more popular than ever,” President Biden said in a statement.

The enrollees include people like Kennita Hickman, 39, who has several autoimmune disorders and was on the verge of losing her Medicaid coverage late last year because her income was too high to qualify for the government program. She found a lifeline in a free Obamacare plan, which has allowed her access to doctors and a therapist.

“I have three health conditions that I have to manage,” said Ms. Hickman, who owns a media company in Milwaukee. “Being without insurance is always scary.”

Health policy experts say the record number of sign-ups has been largely attributable to increased federal subsidies for those purchasing plans on the marketplaces, which were initially part of a congressional spending package in 2021. The subsidies, which increased at every level of income, were renewed through 2025.

Researchers have estimated that in the roughly 30 states using HealthCare.gov, premium payments would have been more than 50 percent higher on average if not for the subsidies.

The subsidies have proved helpful to broad swaths of Americans, including those in upper-middle-income groups. And they have allowed many lower-income people, including Ms. Hickman, to sign up for plans with no premiums and lower deductibles.

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Some of those signing up on the marketplaces lost Medicaid for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, after a federal rule guaranteeing coverage expired in April and forced millions of people to hunt for new plans.

In his statement on Wednesday, Mr. Biden called out “extreme Republicans” for efforts to block reforms.

“Their plan would raise costs for millions of people, especially older Americans and small business owners who rely on the marketplace for their coverage, by repealing the improvements I signed into law,” he said. “In fact, they want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, just as my predecessor tried and failed to do.”

The political context was clear. Former President Donald J. Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, has threatened an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act in recent weeks, recalling the early months of his presidency, when he cheered on a failed Republican-led effort to dismantle the law. Mr. Biden’s campaign quickly amplified Mr. Trump’s comments.

Mr. Trump might not have the party backing to replace the health law, even if he were to win the White House with full Republican control of Congress. After his threat, some Republican lawmakers have suggested changing the marketplaces to improve the quality and affordability of plans, while others have conceded there is most likely little appetite for a broader repeal.

About six in 10 adults approve of the health law, part of a steady increase in popularity since the same time in 2016, when only around four in 10 approved, according to polling released in May by KFF, a nonprofit health policy research group.

The plans were once further out of reach for middle-class Americans. People qualified for subsidies on a sliding scale based on income, with the remaining premiums sometimes prohibitively expensive.

Critics of the health law have argued that even with enhanced federal subsidies, plans can be expensive. Coverage with lower premiums often carry high deductibles and co-payments.

The record number reported on Wednesday can be partly explained by the increasing size and sophistication of networks that help Americans choose new or different plans. The Biden administration has spent hundreds of millions of dollars fortifying those so-called navigator groups and the marketing campaigns that publicize the marketplaces.

The federal government funneled nearly $100 million into navigator organizations that helped increased enrollment this winter. One of those groups is Covering Wisconsin, which assisted Ms. Hickman in her search for a plan last month.

“We have had more appointments than ever,” said Adam VanSpankeren, the group’s navigator program manager. “We’ve had our schedules fill up. Going into November, I had navigators with schedules booked Thanksgiving and beyond.”

Covering Wisconsin, which has more than 40 navigators across the state, has seen an 82 percent increase in marketplace enrollments compared with last year, Mr. VanSpankeren added.

Rawha Abouarabi, who oversees a federally funded navigator team in Michigan at the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, said many of those signing up were like Ms. Hickman, with incomes just above the limit for Medicaid but without the option to sign up for employer-sponsored insurance.

Ms. Abouarabi said her group had enrolled more than 600 new people in plans since November, while about the same number had re-enrolled in the marketplace. A vast majority of those already enrolled in marketplace plans through her organization had returned this winter to re-enroll. That was a sign of the attractiveness of plans, she said.

More insurance companies have joined the market in recent years, noting the demand for coverage and the variety that Americans have sought in choosing plans.

“That can create a problem of choice overload,” said Dr. McIntyre, the health policy expert at Harvard. But as more people enroll with those insurers, she added, “it makes the markets larger and harder to disrupt.”

Is the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare the single biggest and most popular government policy/program rollout in most of our lifetimes? It sure seems like it, both getting more popular and also being more necessary as a secondary safety net for those who don't qualify for Medicaid but also don't earn enough to pay for decent coverage. Now they can get subsidized plans depending on their income.

And as a few key reminders:

Obamacare is majority popular with polling usually around 60% favorability, a number that keeps growing over the years as people see the benefits themselves.

On that note, a quick trip back to recent history, does anyone remember this comment from Nancy Pelosi and the ABSOLUTE SHITSTORM OF OUTRAGE FROM REPUBLICANS?



Who, as Snopes notes, took the soundbite intentionally out of context and grossly misrepresented it to attack Nancy. Getting an early start on the common misinformation tactics we see today.

Anyways, I think the polling indicates that

#NancyWasFuckinRight

And, on the bolded in particular - https://www.vox.com/health-care/2017...ollapse-repeal

Republican lawmakers consistently claim that the Obamacare marketplaces are collapsing, so they need to pass a bill to repeal and replace the health law.

“The marketplace is collapsing, and countless more Americans will get hurt if we don’t act,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor last month.

“We'll move ahead with deliberate speed,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said in a recent speech. “We’re doing that because exchanges are collapsing.”

Republicans in 2017 when they briefly attempted to REPEAL AND REPLACE without having a replacement because they never thought they'd actually be put in a position where they needed to deliver on their rhetoric.

As is common, they were wrong, shortsighted, and arguing against the apparent interests of Americans and we can see that in hindsight. Again.

Anyways, just wanted to take another victory lap over the soaring achievement Democrats accomplished with Obamacare, even if it was somewhat neutered in an attempt to get broader support that was simply never possible because Republicans will oppose literally anything on the grounds that it's a Democrat proposal that might help Democrats and Republicans just can't do that, even if it helps all Americans.

[Breccia]

"Republican lawmakers consistently claim that the Obamacare marketplaces are collapsing, so they need to pass a bill to repeal and replace the health law."

It's like they don't have any memory of recent events at all.

They backed a candidate who promised that, and had literally nothing which wasn't in that sentence I just quoted.

Then they tried three votes and got McCain'd right in the Gaetz.

[Kokolums]

Obamacare as repealed when they abolished the mandate. What we currently have is Trumpcare. The key objection to Obamacare by republicans was that if you didnt have health insurance, you had to pay a fine / tax. Republicans repealed it (and it was a widely popular repeal) and created a new system approved by Trump.

[Elegiac]

Obamacare as repealed when they abolished the mandate. What we currently have is Trumpcare.

This level of desperation is really pathetic.

[some guy]

If it's Trumpcare then why is Donny J Dumbfuck blathering on about how terrible it is?

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

I'll take "Things he just pulled out of his ass" for 700.

[Calfredd]

Obamacare as repealed when they abolished the mandate. What we currently have is Trumpcare. The key objection to Obamacare by republicans was that if you didnt have health insurance, you had to pay a fine / tax. Republicans repealed it (and it was a widely popular repeal) and created a new system approved by Trump.

So we should thank Obama and Biden for making it/keeping it good? Thanks Obama! Thanks Biden!

[Edge-]

Obamacare as repealed when they abolished the mandate. What we currently have is Trumpcare. The key objection to Obamacare by republicans was that if you didnt have health insurance, you had to pay a fine / tax. Republicans repealed it (and it was a widely popular repeal) and created a new system approved by Trump.

correcting the record is useful. unless you want a forum with a bunch of false information.

Now then let's be consistent here.

Please point to us where the Affordable Care Act was repealed, as a starting point.

[Benggaul]

I still find it amusing the number of people who don't realize that "Obamacare" and ACA are one and the same, scoffing at the former but with nothing negative to say about the latter. GOP brainwashing at its finest.

[Milchshake]

Obamacare as repealed when they abolished the mandate. What we currently have is Trumpcare. The key objection to Obamacare by republicans was that if you didnt have health insurance, you had to pay a fine / tax. Republicans repealed it (and it was a widely popular repeal) and created a new system approved by Trump.

Lol sorry that your ability to recall history is so impoverished.

The Individual Mandate, was a concept mostly invented by the Heritage Foundation, then championed by Romney as a feature of "romneycare". It was the fig leaf that liberals offered to "fiscal conservatives". Basically a version of Boots Straps for Health care.
Obamas big contributions were:
Massive expansion of Medicaid. Giving assitence to the poor. The thing that You, Trump and boilerplate GOPs constantly want to destroy. You guys dont even pretend that is should be bLOck GrAnTS to the STatES slush funds for Breet Farve and other GOP cronies.
Elimination of Prexisiting Conditions. Again assistance to poor people, to help them afford health care.
No more junk policies. Offered by insurance companies to mostly prey on poor people with policies that were vaporware. Remember all those "Obummer lied, my policy costs moar! (it also covered more.

[Logwyn]

Just do medicare for all and be done with it. Make the fat cat billionaires pay for it.

[unfilteredJW]

Obamacare as repealed when they abolished the mandate. What we currently have is Trumpcare. The key objection to Obamacare by republicans was that if you didnt have health insurance, you had to pay a fine / tax. Republicans repealed it (and it was a widely popular repeal) and created a new system approved by Trump.

Just keep making up your own reality lil bro.

[Captain N]

Someone got lost on the way to the "Have You Ever Done Drugs?" thread and decided to prove it in here it seems.

[Breccia]

Someone got lost on the way to the "Have You Ever Done Drugs?" thread and decided to prove it in here it seems.

Drugs that were covered by ACA compliant plans.

In all seriousness and non-trolling, the fact that people are signing up is proof it isn't Trumpcare. Trump removed the mandate, so people wouldn't have to sign up. They are signing up anyhow.

It's yet another Trump failure. And, of course, thanks, Obama.

[Karreck]

Just do medicare for all and be done with it. Make the fat cat billionaires pay for it.

America can't have nice things like that. We have to consider the feelings of CEOs and billionaires. Is it really fair to deny them their third yacht just so little Timmy can have a life saving operation without his parents going bankrupt? After all, little Timmy isn't a job creator who's profit will trickle down to the working man.
Priorities.

[Spectral]

I do kind of love that the primary metric for the success of a new medical spending/coverage policy isn't whether health outcomes have improved or costs have decreased, it's that a lot of people are participating in it. The most charitable explanation is that this is just an example of Goodhart's Law and how that looks in a large bureaucracy.

[unfilteredJW]

I do kind of love that the primary metric for the success of a new medical spending/coverage policy isn't whether health outcomes have improved or costs have decreased, it's that a lot of people are participating in it. The most charitable explanation is that this is just an example of Goodhart's Law and how that looks in a large bureaucracy.

Absolute clown shoes.

[Gelannerai]

I do kind of love that the primary metric for the success of a new medical spending/coverage policy isn't whether health outcomes have improved or costs have decreased, it's that a lot of people are participating in it. The most charitable explanation is that this is just an example of Goodhart's Law and how that looks in a large bureaucracy.

I mean, in a country where medical supplies and treatment are price-gouged into oblivion and can easily destroy a family’s financial stability for a generation(s) if forced to pay out of pocket, it is really one of the better metrics. Is it the bestiest bestest in the whole wide world? Nah, not even close. But then again you can say the exact same thing about the shitshow that is American healthcare.

[D3thray]

Lol sorry that your ability to recall history is so impoverished.

The Individual Mandate, was a concept mostly invented by the Heritage Foundation, then championed by Romney as a feature of "romneycare". It was the fig leaf that liberals offered to "fiscal conservatives". Basically a version of Boots Straps for Health care.
Obamas big contributions were:
Massive expansion of Medicaid. Giving assitence to the poor. The thing that You, Trump and boilerplate GOPs constantly want to destroy. You guys dont even pretend that is should be bLOck GrAnTS to the STatES slush funds for Breet Farve and other GOP cronies.
Elimination of Prexisiting Conditions. Again assistance to poor people, to help them afford health care.
No more junk policies. Offered by insurance companies to mostly prey on poor people with policies that were vaporware. Remember all those "Obummer lied, my policy costs moar! (it also covered more.

Oh come on get your your propaganda straight, even Trump didn’t want to remove coverage for pre-existing conditions.

As someone who had individual plans pre and post ACA they absolutely cost more. Covered more to be fair but the option for less coverage doesn’t exist anymore either. And then you were going to be penalized for not paying more for insurance. Costs for healthcare absolutely ballooned under ACA which is part of why to this day there is still a push for single payer Medicare for all. Yes that’s a bigger topic with alot more nuance.

Popular ACA by no means equals flawless gift from on high from our lord and savior Obama.

[Jastall]

I do kind of love that the primary metric for the success of a new medical spending/coverage policy isn't whether health outcomes have improved or costs have decreased, it's that a lot of people are participating in it. The most charitable explanation is that this is just an example of Goodhart's Law and how that looks in a large bureaucracy.

A lot of people are participating because the alternatives are pretty shit in comparison, so while the ACA is hardly some gift from Heaven loads of Americans still believe it's their least bad option at the very least. And it'll continue to be so long as American healthcare and insurance are so poorly designed from the ground up.