Nearly 9 Million People Could Benefit From Broadened ACA Enrollment Period
by Jinghong Chen
President Joe Biden on Jan. 28 signed an executive order to reopen the federal health exchange from Feb.15 through May 15. During that special enrollment period, 4 million uninsured people will be eligible for a zero-premium bronze plan on HealthCare.gov, and another 4.9 million could get subsidies to cover part of a health plan, according to a recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Compared to the general non-elderly population, these subsidy-eligible uninsured individuals are more likely to be young adults, high-school educated and working in industries such as construction, arts, entertainment and recreation. Approximately 8.3 million people selected or were automatically reenrolled in health plans for 2021 on HealthCare.gov as of the Dec. 15 deadline, according to CMS.