Thousands of Residents Have Used the Marketplace to Enroll in 2023 Health Insurance
DENVER— This Thursday, December 8, is Get Covered Colorado Day. This day of action encourages as many Coloradans as possible to enroll in 2023 health coverage during the annual Open Enrollment Period, which runs through January 15. In the first five weeks of this year’s Open Enrollment, approximately 145,000 residents enrolled in a plan through Colorado’s official health insurance marketplace, Connect for Health Colorado.
Seeing how Connect4HealthCO announced 57.5K enrollees just 6 days ago, it's pretty safe to assume that they didn't have over 87,000 more Coloradans suddenly enroll in less than a week. Presumably the 145K figure includes auto-renewals of the remaining current enrollees who haven't actively signed up for a 2023 policy yet.
DENVER— Since November 1, more than 57,500 people have used Connect for Health Colorado’s marketplace to enroll in a health insurance plan. That’s 7,000 enrollments ahead of the same time period last year. Approximately 78 percent of those who have enrolled so far are qualifying for financial help that reduces the cost of plans.
Connect for Health Colorado’s Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Patterson, released the following statement:
“I’m so pleased that people are getting covered early in the enrollment period and that we’re continuing to see enrollment growth year over year. That tells me that our marketplace is giving people the options they’re looking for, at prices that are within their budget. For those who are waiting to sign up, I urge that you make an appointment with an enrollment specialist and enroll by December 15 to begin the new year with peace of mind.”
One of the most inane restrictions of the ACA in my view, as I noted in my "If I Ran the Zoo" wish list back in 2017, is that it doesn't allow undocumented immigrants to enroll in ACA marketplace health plans ("Qualified Health Plans" or QHPs).
I don't just mean that they aren't eligible for federal financial subsidies--that's a prohibition which I can at least understand, even if I don't agree with it. I mean that they aren't allowed to enroll in ACA exchange-based QHPs even at full price, as noted in Section 1312(f)(3):
(3) Access limited to lawful residents.--If an individual is not, or is not reasonably expected to be for the entire period for which enrollment is sought, a citizen or national of the United States or an alien lawfully present in the United States, the individual shall not be treated as a qualified individual and may not be covered under a qualified health plan in the individual market that is offered through an Exchange.
One of the most inane restrictions of the ACA in my view, as I noted in my "If I Ran the Zoo" wish list back in 2017, is that it doesn't allow undocumented immigrants to enroll in ACA marketplace health plans ("Qualified Health Plans" or QHPs).
I don't just mean that they aren't eligible for federal financial subsidies--that's a prohibition which I can at least understand, even if I don't agree with it. I mean that they aren't allowed to enroll in ACA exchange-based QHPs even at full price, as noted in Section 1312(f)(3):
(3) Access limited to lawful residents.--If an individual is not, or is not reasonably expected to be for the entire period for which enrollment is sought, a citizen or national of the United States or an alien lawfully present in the United States, the individual shall not be treated as a qualified individual and may not be covered under a qualified health plan in the individual market that is offered through an Exchange.
Last week I noted that of the 33 million people still uninsured in the United States, around 6.5 million of them can't be covered via Affordable Care Act provisions because they're undocumented immigrants, who aren't legally allowed to #GetCovered via either the ACA exchanges (private coverage) or Medicaid expansion (public coverage). Another 3.7 million legal residents/citizens, of course, are caught in the Medicaid Gap. I also brought up the undocumented immigrant factor in a piece yesterday trying to break out the other portions of that 33 million total.
Anyway, in the comments, "dawgitall" asked a reasonable question: If there's around 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. total (everyone seems to agree on that estimate), and 6.5 million of them aren't insured at all, what's the deal with the remaining 4.5 million?
