A couple of weeks ago, I used the COVID Special Enrollment Period (SEP) data I had for HealthCare.Gov through the end of March, combined with limited SEP data from some state-based ACA exchanges, to extrapolate out a rough estimate of how many new Qualified Health Plan (QHP) selections may have happened since the new "Spring 2021 Special Enrollment Period" was launched on February 15th, 2021.
At the time, I estimated that perhaps 15,800 people per day on average had newly enrolled in ACA exchange policies as of the end of March, or roughly 710,000 nationally. This included the 528,000 confirmed enrollees via HealthCare.Gov, plus another 183,000 or so via the 15 state-based exchanges.
Savings to the Rescue – Pennie is Now Open with Increased Savings
Pennie Customers Can Now See Savings When Shopping for Health Coverage
Uninsured Pennsylvanians will be able to receive significant savings in health coverage as a result of the American Rescue Plan
Harrisburg, PA – April 16 – As a result of the recent American Rescue Plan, also known as the COVID-19 relief package, provisions specific to the Affordable Care Act have impacted the way health insurance is available in Pennsylvania. These provisions include significant impacts, including an increase in savings, for Pennsylvanians seeking individual market coverage and those already enrolled through Pennie, as well as those who may lose their employment and rely on COBRA to maintain their employer coverage. Pennie is excited to announce that these savings are now available at pennie.com for those looking to enroll in quality, affordable coverage.
Good news! More financial help is now available through Get Covered New Jersey
New Federal and State Savings
The federal government recently passed a COVID-19 relief bill, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which was signed into law by President Biden on March 11, 2021. The new law will reduce health insurance premiums by providing more financial help to eligible consumers who purchase a plan through Get Covered New Jersey. The State of New Jersey is also providing more financial help to lower health insurance costs for residents enrolling at Get Covered New Jersey.
More people than ever will qualify for financial help. If you did not qualify for financial help before because your income was too high, you may qualify under the state and federal changes. If you already receive financial help, you will likely be eligible for additional premium reductions. These new changes make coverage more affordable at many income levels.
I've done my best to label every state/territory, which obviously isn't easy to do for most of them given how tangled it gets in the middle.
More than 1 out of every 8 residents of North Dakota, South Dakota and Rhode Island have tested positive for COVID-19 over the past year.
More than 1 out of every 9 residents of Iowa, Utah, Tennessee, Arizona and Nebraska have tested positive.
More than 1 out of 10 in Arkansas, South Carolina, New Jersey, Alabama, Kansas, Indiana, New York, Mississippi, Idaho, Delaware, Illinois, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada and Florida.
More than 1 out of 20 in every state & territory EXCEPT Guam, Oregon, Maine, Vermont, U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii, N. Mariana Islands and American Samoa.
OK, this is a first...while most other states have been simply extending their existing COVID Special Enrollment Periods out through August to allow for the newly-expanded ACA subsidies, Connecticut is shutting theirs down at midnight tonight (April 15th)...but relaunching it again on May 1st:
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: Savings Coming for Connecticut Residents
You Can Start to Take Action & See Savings After May 1, 2021
A new federal law was passed in March 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act, and it changed the way we calculate financial help for customers for this year and 2022. Many more customers will now qualify for financial help to make plans more affordable. Whether you’re a first-time shopper, or an existing customer, there could be big changes ahead for your household, and we want to make sure you know how to take advantage of the new financial help available.
Connect for Health Colorado Offers More Savings to More Coloradans on Health Insurance Costs
Many Residents Can Find Coverage for Just A Few Dollars a Month
DENVER – Starting today, Thursday, April 15, Coloradans seeking health insurance can access more savings as a result of the American Rescue Plan (also known as the “COVID relief package”) when they shop through Connect for Health Colorado®. The American Rescue Plan expanded financial help for health insurance plans that people buy via the federal and state health insurance exchanges through 2022. And, for the first time, ever, Colorado individuals and families of all income ranges can qualify for reduced premiums.
“We’re ready and eager to provide these savings to more Coloradans who need relief right away,” said Chief Executive Officer Kevin Patterson. “I encourage those who need coverage to sign up. If you were unable to obtain financial help in the past, now is the time to re-apply. You might be surprised how much you can save.”
So, the American Rescue Plan includes two important provisions whch I've been fighting for for years: #KillTheCliff and #UpTheSubs. The only downside is that, for now at least, these ACA enhancements are only included for two years (including 2021...the beefed-up & expanded subsidies are retroactive to January 1st of this year).
As a reminder (this is like the 20th time I've posted a table like this), here's the official ACA subsidy formula compared to the improved formula under the American Rescue Plan (ARP):
Note: The Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is 15% higher per household in Hawaii and 25% higher in Alaska.
The data below comes from the GitHub data repositories of Johns Hopkins University, except for Utah, which comes from the GitHub data of the New York Times due to JHU not breaking the state out by county but by "region" for some reason.
Important:
Every county except those in Alaska lists the 2020 Biden/Trump partisan lean; Alaska still uses the 2016 Clinton/Trump results (the 2020 Alaska results are only available by state legislative district, not by county/borough for some reason...if anyone has that info let me know)
I define a "Swing District" as one where the difference between Biden & Trump was less than 6.0%. FWIW, there's just 187 swing districts (out of over 3,100 total), with around 33.7 million Americans out of 332 million total, or roughly 10.2% of the U.S. population.
For the U.S. territories, Puerto Rico only includes the case breakout, not deaths, which are unavailable by county equivalent for some reason.
With those caveats in mind, here's the top 100 counties ranked by per capita COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, April 14th, 2021 (click image for high-res version).
Blue = Joe Biden won by more than 6 points
Orange = Donald Trumpwon by more than 6 points
Yellow = Swing District (Biden or Trump won by less than 6 points)
A few weeks ago, I noted that one of the numerous ACA-related provisions of the American Rescue Plan was this one:
Put simply, subsidized enrollees last year received around $6.3 billion in "excess subsidies"...they underestimated their income for the year 2020 and would normally be required to pay them back, but the ARP is waiving that "clawback" of overpayments for one year only in response to the pandemic.
Again, these are subsidies which were already paid out in 2020. The money is already in the hands of the enrollees (well, technically it's in the hands of the insurance carriers, but that in turn freed up an equal amount in the bank accounts of the enrollees, anyway). This provision simply says that the enrollees don't have to pay it back.
...there's also another small but critical detail included in the table above which escaped my attention last summer in H.R. 1425.
Take a look at the first line of Rep. Underwood's 2019 version (H.R 1868):
Over 100.0 percent up to 133.0 percent
Now take a look at the first line under both H.R. 1425 and H.R. 369:
Up to 150.0 percent
Notice the difference? I'm not talking about the "up to 150%" part. I'm talking about the removal of the "Over 100.0 percent" part.
If this were to pass the House & Senate and be signed into law by President Biden using this exact language, it would apparently eliminate the Medicaid Gap...albeit with a couple of major caveats.
