By the time the offer closed, more than 340,000 Missourians had enrolled in plans in the federal health insurance marketplace, an increase of more than 35% from the previous year, according to preliminary data from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Open enrollment is an annual sign-up period during which Americans who don't receive health insurance through work can sign up for a plan at Healthcare.gov or the state-run health insurance market.
As of late December, 340,534 people were enrolled in plans in the open enrollment marketplace, an increase of about 80,000 from last year. According to the latest available data. Although open enrollment ended on Jan. 16, Missouri has already seen significant enrollment increases and is expected to increase further as new data comes in.
“We knew it would be busy, but these numbers are surprising to us,” said Julie Peets, executive director of the Missouri Association of Area Agencies on Aging, which helps people enroll in insurance plans. . “It was a pretty intense situation. The navigators were booked 24 hours a day and there was no time to relax.”
Missouri's increase reflects a national trend of more people getting insurance through the marketplace in 2024. CMS officials say more than 20 million people are enrolled in the plan. National registration recordthey said.
Health experts say part of the increase could be in Missouri and other states. We're disenrolling people from Medicaid. After domestic pandemic-related continuing coverage requirements expire. People who suddenly find themselves ineligible for government-funded health insurance are trying to find insurance on the marketplace.
“It's going to take a while for these numbers to stabilize, but it's definitely going to be an increase from last year,” said Tim McBride, a health policy professor at the University of Washington's Brown School.
He said the number of Medicaid enrollees in Missouri has declined by more than 100,000 people since the Medicaid purge began in June.
“Everyone doubts that some of the people who lost their insurance will have jobs at this point,” said McBride, who is also co-director of the Center for the Advancement of Health Services, Policy and Economics Research. “They may go to other coverage, some may go to the market, some may go uninsured.”
Congress also approved federal subsidies to offset the costs of marketplace health plans in 2021, said Krutika Amin, an ACA policy researcher at the health research organization KFF. How much money the federal government gives toward a customer's plan payment depends on the customer's income. Some people can get insurance for as little as $1 a month.
“Enhanced subsidies have made marketplace plans more affordable for many people in recent years,” Amin said. “Many Medicaid enrollees are disenrolled, and some of them believe they can find a marketplace plan and enroll at a price that is affordable enough.”
As Medicaid withdrawals continue, many health departments and nonprofit organizations are also focusing on marketing and awareness campaigns to encourage people to sign up for health insurance, he said. That might make people more aware of the open enrollment period.
Peets, of the Missouri Regional Agency on Aging, said he has seen his organization's staff help many new U.S. residents obtain insurance.
“We do a lot of registration in St. Louis and we see a lot of immigration in the city,” she said. “A lot of those people are on Medicaid, but a lot of people are using the marketplace as well, because so many people can get a plan for less than $10. ”
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