The 2025 ACA Open Enrollment Period (OEP) officially begins on November 1st.
This is the best OEP ever for the ACA for several reasons:
The expanded/enhanced premium subsidies first introduced in 2021 via the American Rescue Plan, which make premiums more affordable for those who already qualified while expanding eligibility to millions who weren't previously eligible, are continuing through the end of 2025 via the Inflation Reduction Act;
A dozen states are either launching, continuing or expanding their own state-based subsidy programs to make ACA plans even more affordable for their enrollees;
Update 12/09/24: As expected, a federal court has shot down the eligibility of DACA recipients to enroll in ACA exchange coverage in the 19 states involved in the lawsuit. In theory the roughly 2/3 of DACA recipients living in the other 31 states +DC should still be eligible.
And remember, millions of people will be eligible for zero premium comprehensive major medical policies.
If you've never enrolled in an ACA healthcare policy before, or if you looked into it a few years back but weren't impressed, please give it another shot now. Thanks to these major improvements it's a whole different ballgame.
Here's some important things to know when you #GetCovered for 2025:
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is committed to a robust Marketplace Open Enrollment process for consumers so they can easily purchase high-quality, affordable health care coverage. CMS reports that a record 16.6 million consumers signed up for plan year 2025 and will receive up to a full year of coverage beginning January 1. Of those consumers, 2 million are new to the Marketplace this year. This represents selections in the 31 states that use HealthCare.gov. Plan selection continues in most State-based Marketplaces, as well. The next national snapshot will be available in early January.
The footnote at the bottom confirms: "These metrics reflect available Federally-facilitated Marketplaces (FFMs) data through December 18, 2024."
Over 150k Minnesotans have signed up for health insurance since November 1
ST. PAUL, Minn.—Following last year’s incredible enrollment success, MNsure is pleased to report yet another new record for health insurance sign-ups in Minnesota.
Between November 1 and the first deadline (December 18), 151,098 Minnesotans used MNsure.org to sign up for qualified health plans. This represents a 14% increase in private health plan sign-ups compared to the same time last year.
This is excellent news, however, as happens every year with MNsure, it comes with a big caveat.
Idaho actually already launched their 2025 Open Enrollment Period on October 15th, and it only runs through December 16th.*
...*Idaho has continued to doing this even though Nov. 1st has almost always been the official start date and the Biden Admin extended the end date out to Jan. 15th several years ago. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new rules last year which I had thought were supposed to crack down on this & bring Idaho in line with other states, but apparently the Gem State was grandfathered in.
Nevada Health Link hasn't published a formal press release about this yet (I'm assuming they're waiting until they actually break 100K to do so, which would be perfect timing since the deadline to enroll for January 1st coverage is New Year's Eve), but I just found this in their December Executive Director's Report from 2 days ago:
OPEN ENROLLMENT 2025
Following the close of week seven, the Plan Year 2025 OEP is the Exchange’s highest performing to date. The annual passive renewals (or Auto-renewals) job was completed in mid-October with a greater than 99.9% renewal success rate.
Holy crap. That's astonishing.
When OEP began on November 1, 91,555 individuals were enrolled in 2025 health coverage, and 16,820 individuals were enrolled in dental coverage, our highest starting numbers ever.
(I'm assuming that's a typo & should be 2024 health coverage, since obviously you can't have anyone enrolled in 2025 coverage prior to OEP launching).
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published two 2025 ACA Open Enrollment Period "snapshot reports," both of which had above-the-fold numbers which make it look as though enrollment numbers are lagging significantly behind last year's record-breaking totals:
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is committed to creating a robust Marketplace Open Enrollment process for consumers so they can effortlessly purchase high-quality, affordable health care coverage. CMS reports that nearly 988,000 consumers who do not currently have health care coverage through the individual market Marketplace have signed up for plan year 2025 coverage.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was created to protect eligible young adults who were brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and to provide them with work authorization for temporary, renewable periods. As of December 31, 2022, there were roughly 580,000 active DACA recipients from close to 200 different countries of birth residing all over the U.S.
While individuals with DACA status can be authorized to work, they remain ineligible for many federal programs, including health coverage through Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance Marketplaces. These restrictions result in higher uninsured rates among DACA recipients, contributing to barriers accessing health care.
Denver, Colo.– Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s official health insurance marketplace, is celebrating a record-breaking open enrollment period, with 256,051 Coloradans enrolled in health coverage that begins Jan. 1.
To date, the number of Coloradans who enrolled in health insurance plans for plan year 2025 is more than the total number of people (237,107) who enrolled through Connect for Health Colorado last year.
The official total I was sent is 256,051 Qualified Health Plan (QHP) selections to date, which is 21% more than C4HCO had at the same point last year and 8% higher than last year's final Open Enrollment Period tally.
Not only is New Mexico's exchange enrollment up a whopping 31% vs. the same point last year, it's actually already 13.5% higher than the 2024 OEP's final total of 56,472!
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of the Health Insurance Marketplace (OHIM) will release biweekly updates on plan selections through CoverME.gov, Maine’s Health Insurance Marketplace.
Plan selections provide a snapshot of activity by new and returning consumers who have selected a plan for 2025. “Plan selections” become “enrollments” once consumers have paid their first monthly premium to begin insurance. These numbers are subject to change as consumers may modify or cancel plans after their initial selection.
The deadline to select a plan for coverage beginning January 1, 2025 is December 15, 2024. Consumers who select a plan between December 16, 2024 and January 15, 2025 will have coverage beginning February 1, 2025.
