The Biden-Harris Administration is expanding the number of Navigator organizations to help people enroll in coverage through the Marketplace, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 30 states with a Federally-Facilitated Marketplace. Through $80 million in grant awards for the 2022 plan year, 60 Navigator awardee organizations will be able to train and certify more than 1,500 Navigators to help uninsured consumers find affordable and comprehensive health coverage.
200,000 MARYLANDERS GAINED HEALTH COVERAGE THROUGH THE CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL ENROLLMENT
Special enrollment in response to pandemic ran from March 2020 to August 2021
(BALTIMORE) — A total of 201,141 Marylanders enrolled through the Coronavirus Emergency Special Enrollment on Maryland Health Connection from March 16, 2020 to its conclusion on Aug. 15, 2021.
The numbers here are certainly good news and pretty impressive, but it's really, really important to keep that start date in mind when looking at them.
The 17-month special enrollment in response to the pandemic was one of the longest of any state in the country. It was extended several times in 2020 and 2021 as the emergency continued. In all:
Connect for Health Colorado Has Enrolled More Residents in Health Coverage This Year Than Ever Before
Colorado's Marketplace is Keeping Residents Insured during the Pandemic
DENVER – Since Connect for Health Colorado re-opened enrollment on February 8, 2021, to help customers secure health coverage amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, approximately 36,350 residents have signed up for a health insurance plan.
As of Sunday, August 15, the last day of the enrollment period, 216,350 Coloradans have signed up for a plan that provides coverage this year. That total is 21,000 more health insurance plan sign ups than the same day last year— a nearly 11 percent increase.
I go by FULLY vaccinated residents only (defined as 2 doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine).
I base my percentages on the total population, as opposed to adults only or those over 11 years old.
For 42 states + DC I use the daily data from the Centers for Disease Control, but there are some where the CDC is either missing county-level data entirely or where the CDC data is less than 90% complete at the county level. Therefore:
For Colorado, Georgia, New Mexico and Texas, I'm using their COVID vaccine dashboards set up by the state health departments.
For California, I'm using the CDC data for most counties and the state health dept. dashboard data for the 8 small counties which the CDC isn't allowed to post data for.
The 5 major U.S. territories don't vote for President in the general election, preventing me from displaying them in the main graph, but I have them listed down the right side.
I don't write about standalone dental insurance plan coverage very often (and honestly, neither does HealthCare.Gov or the state-based ACA exchanges), but it's obviously pretty important.
They also estimate that another 1.8 million uninsured Americans who are eligible for subsidized ACA exchange plans who would be eligible for Medicaid instead if those state actually did expand Medicaid (and perhaps another 100K in Missouri). That's nearly 4.0 million total...
So, how to crack this nut in these holdout states, all of which are either completely or partially controlled by Republicans who have adamantly refused to expand the program no matter what all these years?
However, the biggest factors by far in this survey are Party Identification and Who you voted for in 2020:
30% of Republicans still refuse to #GetVaxxed, as well as 21% of Independents...vs. only 5% of Democrats
32% of Trump voters still refuse to #GetVaxxed...vs. just 3% of Biden voters
Joe Biden received ~81.3 million votes last fall. Donald Trump received 74.2 million.
That means, assuming this poll is relatively accurate and representative, there's around 2.44 million Biden voters who are apparently unreachable...but 23.75 million Trump voters who fall into that category. The other ~13 million refuseniks presumably voted 3rd party or didn't vote at all.
Preliminary Information Shows Even Greater Savings in 2022: 24.1% Savings from Bipartisan Reinsurance Program
DENVER - Governor Polis and the Colorado Division of Insurance (DOI), part of the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), released preliminary information about the health insurance plans and premiums for 2022, for the individual market (meaning health insurance plans for people who don’t get their insurance from an employer) and the small group market (for small businesses with 2-100 employees).
17,000 Nevadans Saved on Health Insurance Plans Through Nevada Health Link
The online insurance marketplace increased total enrollments by 7.6% during American Rescue Plan Enrollment Period
CARSON CITY, Nev. (Aug. 23, 2021) – Nevada Health Link, the online health insurance marketplace operated by the state agency, the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange (Exchange), announced that more than 17,000 Nevadans took advantage of premium savings during an Open Enrollment Period (OEP) created by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA or American Rescue Plan).
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to ensure more Americans are covered by health insurance, The American Rescue Plan Act was signed into law on March 11 of this year, allowing uninsured Nevadans additional opportunities to enroll in health insurance benefits along with significant savings. Customers who were already enrolled also had the opportunity to take advantage of increased subsidies through the Nevada Health Link marketplace.
Last week I noted that MNsure, Minnesota's state-based ACA exchange, announced that while the general, open-ended 2021 Special Enrollment Period had ended back in mid-July, they're still letting any Minnesotan who received unemployment benefits at any point in 2021 the opportunity to enroll in ACA healthcare coverage & take advantage of the American Rescue Plan's Unemployment Benefit.
The key point is that Minnesotans can still do so even if they received UI benefits prior to the July 15th SEP deadline. This means that if you were on unemployment back in, say, January or February, and you still need healthcare coverage for the remainder of 2021, you can still visit MNsure.org and get coverage for the last 4 months of this year for $0 in premiums and with mostly nominal deductibles/co-pays (assuming you aren't eligible for employer-based coverage, Medicaid, etc. instead).
