More than 2.7 million people in Florida signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act for 2022. That’s the most of any state and a record for Florida — a 600,000 increase from last year.
The White House has said that 14.5 million Americans got private health insurance for this year under the Obama-era health law, thanks to help from the Biden administration.
It is a record number of people signing up for coverage. The previous marketplace enrollment record was 12.7 million in 2016, the final year of President Barack Obama’s administration.
National signups include 10.3 million in the 33 states using the federal HealthCare.gov platform and 4.2 million in the 17 states and the District of Columbia with state-based marketplaces. Overall, 3 million consumers (21% of total) are new and 11.5 million are returning consumers (79% of total) .
In Florida, 2,723,094 signed up through HealthCare.org, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The previous year had 2,120,350 Floridians sign up.
President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief bill has been providing generous subsidy increases, but the financial assistance goes away at the end of 2022 unless Congress extends it.
HHS said the latest information from a major ongoing federal survey suggests that the nation’s uninsured rate dipped last year, as the Biden administration provided a special sign-up period due to the pandemic. The uninsured rate was 8.9% in the three-month period from July to September 2021, compared with 10.3% for the final three months of 2020.
The administration is touting the 14.5 million sign-ups as a record, but that number is not strictly comparable to recent years because the federal open enrollment season was extended under Biden. The final number is likely to be higher as several states are allowing residents to sign up until the end of January. It’s working out to an increase of roughly 20% over last open enrollment season.
The ACA, also known as Obamacare, offers health insurance to people who lack job-based coverage through a mix of subsidized private plans and expanded Medicaid, which is provided in most states.
Open enrollment for 2022 coverage for the federal marketplace ran from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15.
Copyright 2022 Health News Florida.