8.8M Enroll In Federal Health Marketplace As Obamacare Refuses To Die

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo




By ALICE OLLSTEIN Published DECEMBER 21, 2017 3:30 PM

The Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that despite the Trump administration’s many attempts to undermine and weaken the Affordable Care Act, enrollment in the federal health care marketplace nearly reached last year’s total of 9.2 million, clocking in at 8.8 million.

Considering that the Trump administration cut the length of the open enrollment period in half, severed partnerships with hundreds of grassroots health organizations, slashed 90 percent of the federal outreach and advertising budget, and has consistently declared the law “dead” and “essentially repealed,” the robust enrollment total is astonishing. Even the most optimistic estimates from health care experts and advocates expected enrollment to drop off by a few million due to the Trump administration’s cutbacks.

As of the final week of open enrollment, which the Trump administration cut from 12 to six weeks, signups were still lagging far behind last year’s total. The massive jump in enrollment in the signup period’s final days was a combination of the typical surge of procrastinators just before the deadline and a large number of people who were auto-enrolled in their current plan because they did not actively select a new one.

CMS reported that the total does not include the people who enrolled between midnight and 3 a.m. on the final day, nor those who were stuck trying to enroll when the deadline hit, and who were called back by HHS and later enrolled.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/8-8m-enroll-in-federal-health-marketplace-as-obamacare-refuses-to-die

[IronLionZion]

1. It's best to let Trump believe he has killed it and move on

It's very telling that at least a few pubs tanked their idiotic health reform but all of these assholes went for their tax reform which is even worse.

[jpak]

2. FU Trump

FU GOP

yup

[LuckyLib]

3. But the Trumpster said it was a massive failure,

a disaster!

[ffr]

4. I would be one of the 8.8m

[BigmanPigman]

5. Some states have extended it through Jan.

I wonder if those numbers are factored in?

[progree]

6. doesn't include the state exchanges, just the healthcare.gov signups

Last edited Fri Dec 22, 2017, 02:38 AM - Edit history (3)

I believe the article is comparing healthcare.gov signups for the 2018 plan year to those for the 2016 and 2017 plan years, and neither include the state exchanges

The federal total does not include the dozen states that run their own health care marketplaces, many of which have invested heavily in outreach and are seeing record enrollment, including populous states like California. Those numbers will come in later, and the ultimate total may be several million higher than the total announced Thursday.

Also the link in the OP to the 9.2 million figure for the 2017 plan year says this:

On January 31, 2017, Open Enrollment for 2017 coverage ended with more than 9.2 million plan selections in states that use the HealthCare.gov eligibility and enrollment platform. ... This snapshot does not include plan selections from State-based Marketplaces. CMS will release a detailed final enrollment report in March, including final plan selection data from State-based Marketplaces.

https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2017-Fact-Sheet-items/2017-02-03.html

So in conclusion the 9.2 million enrollments for the 2017 plan year and 8.8 million enrollments for the 2018 plan year are both just the healthcare.gov signups.

But as the OP says, the 8.8 million isn't the final number for healthcare.gov signups:

CMS reported that the total does not include the people who enrolled between midnight and 3 a.m. on the final day, nor those who were stuck trying to enroll when the deadline hit, and who were called back by HHS and later enrolled.

The main OP article concludes on this gloomy note:

Yet danger still lurks on the horizon for the federal health care marketplace. Congress passed a tax bill this week that kills the Obamacare’s individual mandate penalty, a key mechanism for pushing young and healthy people to buy health insurance. The mandate’s repeal doesn’t kick in until 2019, but amid documented mass confusion about the status of the law, there is a chance many people will think they do not need health insurance in 2018, and will decline to pay their first premiums. Even in a normal year, there is an attrition rate of about 10 percent, but that drop-off may be much larger in the months to come.

Hopefully their insurance companies will point them to the status of the law if they don't pay their first premium(s). (The IRS has said it will enforce the mandate and not automatically process returns that don't have the health insurance checkbox checked or whatever it is)

[progree]

7. Here's a list of 10 states with deadlines that extend past Dec 15

Last edited Fri Dec 22, 2017, 02:35 AM - Edit history (1)

"The Affordable Care Act gave states the option to create their own marketplace, or participate in the federally managed marketplace. While the federally managed marketplace's Open Enrollment has not been extended, here are the states opted to extend their own Open Enrollment Periods.

California: November 1, 2017 - January 31, 2018
Colorado: November 1, 2017 - January 12, 2018
Connecticut: November 1, 2017 - December 22, 2017
District of Columbia: November 1, 2017 - January 31, 2018
Maryland: November 1, 2017 - December 22, 2017
Massachusetts: November 1, 2017 - January 23, 2018
Minnesota: November 1, 2017 - January 14, 2018
New York: November 1, 2017 - January 31, 2018
Rhode Island: November 1, 2017 - December - 31, 2017
Washington: November 1, 2017 - January 15, 2018"

https://www.firstquotehealth.com/health-insurance-news/open-enrollment-2018-extended

There could be more.

[mr_lebowski]

8. Allow me to point out that it's being undermined in other ways ...

Literally a HUGE majority of doctors here in Arizona simply do not 'take Obamacare plans'. We were looking into our options this year for my wife, either put her on my work plan (and the very fact that she CAN BE on my work plan means NO SUBSIDIES for us, no matter how un-affordable adding her to my work plan is for us (>$800 mo) or how little we make as a household, which is bullshit in and of itself) or avail ourselves of one of the various plans offered by the ONE INSURER on the exchange for the Phoenix area ... and in doing our due diligence contacted over a dozen medical practices to inquire if they took even the highest priced PPO plan on avail. on the exchange, and guess what?

NONE DID/DO.

And we had this same problem a few years back when she was on a plan that was available on the exchange, it was very hard to find a doc that accepted it, even though it was a friggin' Platinum PPO from Healthnet.

This is another way ACA is being undermined, by friggin' asshole doctors and medical practices simply refusing to accept the insurance avail on the exchanges. It's a HUGE problem in AZ, and likely in lots of the Red States.