A record 247,000 Marylanders purchased private health insurance through the state’s insurance marketplace during the just-ended 2024 open enrollment period, including Black, Hispanic, and younger Marylanders. New data reveals that more people are taking out private health insurance.
The Maryland Health Benefits Exchange, which manages the state’s insurance market under the Affordable Care Act, said in a press release Friday that the latest open offering period saw a 16% increase in enrollment compared to 2023. A total of 247,243 Marylanders purchased insurance. Medical insurance will be available on the market in 2024.
“We’re really excited,” MHBE Executive Director Michele Hebert said Friday. “Last year…I said to my team, ‘Let’s aim for 250,000 this year,’ and they all thought I was crazy. Lo and behold, we found over 247,000. So… We’re pretty close to that.”
She was also pleased that the record-breaking enrollment numbers included growing demographics eligible for the exchange, including young people as well as Black and Hispanic populations.
Open enrollment, where people can sign up for a health insurance plan or change their current plan, ran from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15. Enrollment numbers in the state market continue to increase for the seventh year in a row, the latest numbers available. Data from exchanges.
More than a third of 2024 enrollees were people between the ages of 18 and 37, young adults eligible for subsidies that reduce medical costs by an average of $38 per month based on financial need.
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This year, 89,642 people registered in the same age group, an increase of 21% compared to 2023, when young adults registered 73,858.
“This represents 36% of the total enrollment (this year),” Hebert said.
Of the approximately 90,000 youth who registered this year, 72% were eligible for youth grants. Ebert said the system was created in 2022 as a pilot program to reduce costs for eligible young people, who tend to make up the largest portion of the uninsured population. Some members of the General Assembly are interested in making youth grants permanent through legislation in the 2025 session.
Eberle said having healthy young people insured will lower premiums for everyone, while also ensuring young people are covered in the event of an unexpected medical situation.
“We have done a lot to educate young people,” she said. “If you have an unplanned pregnancy, you don’t know when a pandemic will strike. You don’t know if you’re going to develop a chronic disease or cancer or if you’re just going to fall and break your leg.”
She was also pleased with the increase in enrollment among Maryland’s black and Hispanic residents.
Black enrollment in Maryland increased by 23% in 2024, from 41,611 in the 2023 enrollment period to 51,086 in the most recent enrollment period. For Hispanic Marylanders, enrollment increased from 28,701 to 35,883, a 25% increase.
While the overall number of new students has increased, the number of new students has decreased compared to last year. In 2023, there were 56,220 new registrations on the market. New enrollment in 2024 was 54,255, a decrease of 4%.
Hebert isn’t worried about the decline.
“The reason is that the public health emergency was lifted all last year, so as people were leaving Medicaid, Medicaid made them eligible for special enrollment, and they were able to get into Medicaid through the exchange and get insurance. “Now I can receive it,” she said. “We started the renewal at a much higher level than in past years.”
Instead, more people renewed their insurance in the marketplace, increasing by 22% in the most recent period. This means around 193,000 people renewed their insurance in the marketplace this year, compared to 158,000 last year.
“Part of the reason is because we have very affordable health plans; we call it ‘stickiness’ in insurance. “If people like their health insurance and find it affordable, they will stay insured,” she said. “So those are all good signs.”
While Ebarl and others at the health care exchanges are excited about recent enrollment numbers, they are worried about what will happen next year under the incoming Trump administration, which could reduce access to affordable health insurance for some people. He said his focus would be on responding to changes in federal policy as they arise. At the market.
This could include hundreds of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, or so-called “Dreamers.” These people are undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children who have been barred from purchasing private health insurance through their state marketplaces, but will be able to do so for the first time this year due to federal changes by the Biden administration. permitted to purchase.
Approximately 249 Maryland residents with DACA eligibility purchased health insurance on the exchange this year. Ebert’s concerns include that new access to markets could be at risk depending on what the Trump administration plans to do.
“I think we’re going to be wary of any changes coming from the federal government,” Eberle said. “Let’s keep our eyes wide open. We need to be prepared for what’s coming out of Congress and the new federal government and how we can make sure that Marylanders have health care coverage.” I’ll go.
“That’s going to be the biggest challenge this year,” she said.
