Washington — The Biden administration announced Tuesday that the number of new customers buying privates has increased significantly. Health insurance From the Affordable Care Act marketplace to 2023.
Around 3.4 million people are insured, a 17% increase compared to the same period last year. The increase in enrollment came as the number of uninsured Americans hit a historic low of 8% this year.
“If you have a good product, people will buy it,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told The Associated Press.
Since open registration began on November 1, over 665,000 new users have purchased plans in the marketplace.
HHS has not disclosed demographic details about the new registrants, but Becerra said the agency hopes to reach out to people in marginalized communities. Already this year, the Marketplace has seen a significant increase in the number of Black, Latino and Native American interviewees.
Between 2020 and 2022, Latino enrollments surged from 1.7 million to 2.6 million, with 1.3 million blacks enrolling last year, up from 900,000 the year before. Native American enrollment increased from he 52,000 to he 68,000.
Becerra said, “The odds of getting a community that was being left behind to sign up are very high.”
Enrollment growth is largely due to generous subsidies extended through 2025 in the Democrats’ $1.9 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Act.
If you sign up for insurance through HealthCare.gov or your state’s marketplace by December 15th, your coverage will begin January 1st.
Experts will be watching closely to see if the ACA’s strong start to open enrollment continues in the coming weeks.
“This shows a very solid demand for health insurance,” said Massey Hawley, principal at health consulting firm Abalea. “Time will tell if this is truly significant significant growth or if it is due to those who acted early in the open registration window.”
Record-low U.S. premium rates could also be disrupted next year, when the government is expected to declare the COVID-19 pandemic over and push millions of Medicaid recipients out of insurance. This could push more people to the federal market in 2023, Whorley added.
“We are going through a period of great change,” Holly said. “All of this indicates that more and more people are joining the exchange.”
