4-4-2021
Nearly 7 million uninsured Americans are now eligible for free health insurance.
President Joe Biden achieved a major expansion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the COVID-19 relief bill, the American Rescue Plan. We're on the cusp of Obamacare unleashed as of April 1, when the expansion to the ACA's subsidies kick in.
As of Thursday, as many as 7 million of the nation's 29 million uninsured can get health insurance for $0. Free.
The administration shared new projections with Vox. According to Health and Human Services' (HHS) calculations, at least 6.8 million of them could now purchase an ACA plan with no monthly premium, and another 1.3 million could sign up for a health plan that costs less than $50 a month.
That's could blow the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) projection of 2.5 million currently uninsured people getting coverage as a result of the new law out of the water. Now it's a matter of getting the word out to all those people that these deals are waiting for them.
It's not just the uninsured who should be taking advantage of the higher subsidies now available in ACA plans. People who are already buying their own insurance outside of the federal or state marketplaces within the ACA can now switch to gain the subsidies.
The new law increases subsidies that would fully pay for coverage for people making up to 150% of the federal poverty level ($19,320/annually for an individual, $46,375 for a family of four), for a silver, benchmark plan.
The CBO calculated that people at that level would, regardless of age, pay no premium as opposed to $800/year currently. For an older person making 450% of FPL, the end of the subsidy cliff brings about $8,000 in savings.
The Kaiser Family Foundation concurs. They estimate that there are 3.7 million people who made too much to be eligible for premium subsidies under the ACA who will now be able to get that assistance.
Those who are already in the marketplace and will now get the additional premium help will see "average savings under the ARPA subsidies will be $70 per month for current individual market purchasers, ranging from an average savings
of $213 (39% of current premiums after subsidies) per month for people with incomes between 400% and 600% of poverty to an average savings of $33 per month (100% of current post-subsidy premiums) for people with incomes under 150% of poverty (who will now have zero-dollar premiums for silver plans with significantly reduced out-of-pocket costs)."
There are those $0 premiums again.
For as many as 7 million people!
More than 200,000 people signed up for ACA coverage during the first two weeks of the special enrollment period President Biden initiated in February, in what was initially going to be a 90-day window.
The response—and the need by people who'd lost insurance because of the pandemic—has been so great that it warranted the extension.
"President Biden promised to bring down health care costs, and by implementing the American Rescue Plan, this administration is delivering," Becerra said in a statement regarding the new subsidy eligibility figures.
"People deserve the peace of mind that comes from knowing you can take care of your health without going into debt."
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