Affordable Care Act 2015: Medicaid Cost, Enrollment Have Expanded Under

Burwell called the 10 million target a “strong and realistic goal”. Current Marketplace customers express satisfaction with their coverage, and we expect most to come back.

In estimates released on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services forecast that 7.3 million to 8.8 million individuals who now have insurance through the marketplaces will re-enroll for next year. Analysis of enrollment data for private health insurance plans and public programs finds that 9.25 million more Americans had health insurance coverage at the end of 2014 than at the end of 2013.[1] However, the data (see Figure 1) also show that the ACA’s Medicaid expansion was responsible for nearly all of the net increase in coverage.

ASPE developed a range of estimates for the number of individuals who are expected to have Marketplace coverage at the end of 2016 from three sources: 1) individuals who have Marketplace coverage in 2015 and are expected to reenroll in 2016, 2) the QHP-eligible uninsured, and 3) individuals who bought 2015 coverage on the individual market outside the Marketplace and may switch to Marketplace coverage.

About one million Texans are eligible for subsidized health insurance coverage under the federal health law but have not signed up, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. This translates to 11 to 14.1 million people, with not all expected to stay on the plan and paying through the end of 2016.

“We will have activities for the kids, we will have a flu shot clinic, and we will have counselors who speak English, Spanish and Portuguese, helping people navigate health insurance enrollment forms and helping them get health insurance”, she says. “Every individual insured today, covered under an individual policy will be getting one of these letters”. The department now projects exchange enrollment to stagnate in the same year CBO estimated that average effectuated enrollment would nearly double to 21 million. Next year, the federal penalty for not having health insurance rises considerably, to either $695 per adult or 2.5 percent of household income, whichever is greater.

The Obama administration’s new estimate may or not prove accurate.

HHS notes the remaining uninsured will be more hard to reach, and a few experts suggest the lag in enrollment raises questions about the effectiveness of the ACA and whether subsidies are sufficient to make the plans affordable.

Meanwhile, the administration has noted it could be hard to reach those who remain uninsured, as those who were already inclined to enroll in exchange coverage or were easiest to reach have already signed up for exchange plans.

Young people, especially men, are in thegroup known in health carecircles asthe “young invincibles”, which doesn’t tend to think insurance is needed.

– Costs. A new research paper from the administration finds that almost 60 percent were not aware or did not understand that subsidies are available to help with their premiums.