The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it is seeing a massive increase in the number of new customers purchasing private health insurance for 2023 from the Affordable Care Act marketplace. .
Nearly 3.4 million people signed up for coverage — a 17% increase from the same period last year. The increase in enrollment comes as the number of uninsured Americans this year hit a historic low of 8%.
“When you have a good product, people buy it,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told The Associated Press.
More than 665,000 new people have purchased plans on the marketplace since open enrollment began on November 1.
HHS did not provide any demographic details about the new registrants, but Becerra said he hopes the agency will reach people in disadvantaged communities. Already this year, the market has seen a huge increase in the number of Black, Latino, and Native Americans seeking insurance.
Between 2020 and 2022, the number of Latinos registered increased from 1.7 million to 2.6 million while 1.3 million Blacks registered last year, up from 900,000 the year before. The number of American Indians registered increased from 52,000 to 68,000.
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“There is a huge chance that we are continuing to engage communities that have been left behind to sign up,” says Becerra.
Enrollment surge has been largely driven by generous subsidies – extended through 2025 in Democrats’ $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law – that help keep payments monthly premium at $0 or just a few dollars monthly for most subscribers.
People can apply for coverage on HealthCare.gov or through their state’s marketplace by December 15 for coverage beginning January 1.
Experts will be watching to see if the ACA’s strong start to open enrollment continues over the next few weeks.
“This shows a huge demand for health insurance,” said Massey Whorley, principal at health consulting firm Avalere. “Only time will tell if this is real, out-of-the-box growth, or if it’s the people who acted earlier in the open enrollment period.”
Record low insurance rates in the United States could also be disrupted next year, when the government is expected to declare an end to the COVID-19 pandemic and remove millions of Medicaid recipients from coverage. insurance. Whorley added that that could push more people to the federal market in 2023.
“We’re going to be looking at a period of significant change,” Whorley said. “All of this indicates that more and more people are joining the exchange.”
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