Obama administration upbeat about health law sign-ups

Federal Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Tuesday that more than 8.2 million Americans have signed up for health insurance this year or had their plans automatically renewed. Last year’s data show the IRS fines approximately 7.5 million Americans for choosing to forgo health insurance entirely, even though the Affordable Care Act penalizes them for doing so. That’s because people still have until January 31 to sign up, and the 6 million figure doesn’t include consumers with coverage this year who will be automatically re-enrolled for 2016, or people who sign up for coverage on exchanges that are run by states. But it seems just as likely that the new budget is less a prelude than the sign of a new normal, in which Obamacare is not fixed nor fully paid for nor furiously opposed, but simply limps along with the rest of our health care system for as long as both can limp. A survey released this month by Northwest Health Law Advocates found costs were the most-often cited barrier to sign-ups as reported by health care navigators in Washington.

“As Open Enrollment proceeds, we’re not taking our foot off the gas pedal”.

Michael Marchand, spokesman for the state exchange, said there did not appear to be a recent falloff in consumer interest in coverage despite uncertainty about the federal government’s long-term support of the ACA.

“If the goal is making health coverage more affordable, the surest way to achieve that objective is not for the state to impose price controls, but for it to roll back its own high taxes and costly coverage mandates”, the report said.

If you were one of the 70,000 Montanans who previously fell in the Medicaid coverage gap and did not earn enough income to marketplace tax credit assistance, you have new affordable options.

After the 2014-15 enrollment period closed, about 219,200 Hoosiers had bought plans through the federal insurance exchange.

According to the analysis from the Albany, New York-based Empire Center, a “breakdown” in oversight from the state Department of Financial Services and artificial cuts in Health Republic’s premiums may have led to the ultimate failure of the consumer operated and oriented plan, or co-op. Monthly premiums for their plans will be 8.43 percent higher, on average, than they were in 2015. That translates to more than 16 million people gaining coverage since the law was passed five years ago.

The U.S. has said that about 9.9 million people will probably be enrolled in Obamacare plans by the end of 2016, compared with a projected 9.1 million at the close of 2015. Federal officials say eight out of ten people around the country quality for financial help. Those signing up by midnight tonight can ensure coverage starts or resumes January 1. By the end of that enrollment period in mid-February, roughly 540,000 Georgians had signed up or been renewed.