Charles Gaba's blog

Over at my 2025 Open Enrollment Period "15 Important Things" guide, I noted the following:

Idaho actually already launched their 2025 Open Enrollment Period on October 15th, and it only runs through December 16th.*

...*Idaho has continued to doing this even though Nov. 1st has almost always been the official start date and the Biden Admin extended the end date out to Jan. 15th several years ago. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new rules last year which I had thought were supposed to crack down on this & bring Idaho in line with other states, but apparently the Gem State was grandfathered in.

That last link goes to this entry from October 11th:

It was in early 2021 that Congressional Democrats passed & President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which among other things dramatically expanded & enhanced the original premium subsidy formula of the Affordable Care Act, finally bringing the financial aid sliding income scale up to the level it should have been in the first place over a decade earlier.

In addition to beefing up the subsidies along the entire 100 - 400% Federal Poverty Level (FPL) income scale, the ARPA also eliminated the much-maligned "Subsidy Cliff" at 400% FPL, wherein a household earning even $1 more than that had all premium subsidies cut off immediately, requiring middle-class families to pay full price for individual market health insurance policies.

Here's what the original ACA premium subsidy formula looked like compared to the current, enhanced subsidy formula:

Nevada Health Link hasn't published a formal press release about this yet (I'm assuming they're waiting until they actually break 100K to do so, which would be perfect timing since the deadline to enroll for January 1st coverage is New Year's Eve), but I just found this in their December Executive Director's Report from 2 days ago:

OPEN ENROLLMENT 2025

Following the close of week seven, the Plan Year 2025 OEP is the Exchange’s highest performing to date. The annual passive renewals (or Auto-renewals) job was completed in mid-October with a greater than 99.9% renewal success rate.

Holy crap. That's astonishing.

When OEP began on November 1, 91,555 individuals were enrolled in 2025 health coverage, and 16,820 individuals were enrolled in dental coverage, our highest starting numbers ever.

(I'm assuming that's a typo & should be 2024 health coverage, since obviously you can't have anyone enrolled in 2025 coverage prior to OEP launching).

Here's the key point, though:

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published two 2025 ACA Open Enrollment Period "snapshot reports," both of which had above-the-fold numbers which make it look as though enrollment numbers are lagging significantly behind last year's record-breaking totals:

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is committed to creating a robust Marketplace Open Enrollment process for consumers so they can effortlessly purchase high-quality, affordable health care coverage. CMS reports that nearly 988,000 consumers who do not currently have health care coverage through the individual market Marketplace have signed up for plan year 2025 coverage.

OMG! Last year over 1.6 milllion new enrollees had signed up as of the first snapshot report...over 66% more!

via the NJ Dept. of Banking & Insurance:

NJDOBI Announces Record Enrollment to Date for 2025 Health Insurance Through Get Covered New Jersey

Residents Must Enroll by Dec. 31 for Coverage Starting Jan. 1; Open Enrollment Ends Jan. 31

TRENTON — Nearly 450,000 New Jersey residents have signed up for a 2025 health insurance plan through Get Covered New Jersey, the state’s Official Health Insurance Marketplace, in the first five weeks of the state’s Open Enrollment Period – a dramatic increase from 330,901 who had selected plans by this time last year, New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI) Commissioner Justin Zimmerman announced today.

Originally posted 12/09/24

SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM

Via KFF:

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was created to protect eligible young adults who were brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and to provide them with work authorization for temporary, renewable periods. As of December 31, 2022, there were roughly 580,000 active DACA recipients from close to 200 different countries of birth residing all over the U.S.

While individuals with DACA status can be authorized to work, they remain ineligible for many federal programs, including health coverage through Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance Marketplaces. These restrictions result in higher uninsured rates among DACA recipients, contributing to barriers accessing health care.

via Connect for Health Colorado:

Denver, Colo.– Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s official health insurance marketplace, is celebrating a record-breaking open enrollment period, with 256,051 Coloradans enrolled in health coverage that begins Jan. 1.

To date, the number of Coloradans who enrolled in health insurance plans for plan year 2025 is more than the total number of people (237,107) who enrolled through Connect for Health Colorado last year.

The official total I was sent is 256,051 Qualified Health Plan (QHP) selections to date, which is 21% more than C4HCO had at the same point last year and 8% higher than last year's final Open Enrollment Period tally.

It was in early 2021 that Congressional Democrats passed & President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which among other things dramatically expanded & enhanced the original premium subsidy formula of the Affordable Care Act, finally bringing the financial aid sliding income scale up to the level it should have been in the first place over a decade earlier.

In addition to beefing up the subsidies along the entire 100 - 400% Federal Poverty Level (FPL) income scale, the ARPA also eliminated the much-maligned "Subsidy Cliff" at 400% FPL, wherein a household earning even $1 more than that had all premium subsidies cut off immediately, requiring middle-class families to pay full price for individual market health insurance policies.

Here's what the original ACA premium subsidy formula looked like compared to the current, enhanced subsidy formula:

via the Massachusetts Health Connector:

December 16, 2024—Massachusetts residents have just one week left before the deadline to get health insurance for the new year, but still have the opportunity to make sure they can go into 2025 with coverage that affordably takes care of their health and wellness needs.

Open Enrollment started Nov. 1 and runs through Jan. 23. However, most people who need health insurance—including people who have recently moved to Massachusetts, who are participants in the state’s growing gig and creative economies, or who simply haven’t had health coverage in many months or years—want coverage to start the new year. The deadline for a plan starting Jan. 1 is Monday, Dec. 23.

It was in early 2021 that Congressional Democrats passed & President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which among other things dramatically expanded & enhanced the original premium subsidy formula of the Affordable Care Act, finally bringing the financial aid sliding income scale up to the level it should have been in the first place over a decade earlier.

In addition to beefing up the subsidies along the entire 100 - 400% Federal Poverty Level (FPL) income scale, the ARPA also eliminated the much-maligned "Subsidy Cliff" at 400% FPL, wherein a household earning even $1 more than that had all premium subsidies cut off immediately, requiring middle-class families to pay full price for individual market health insurance policies.

Here's what the original ACA premium subsidy formula looked like compared to the current, enhanced subsidy formula:

Pages

Advertisement