First Obamacare deadline had big late rush

Despite the Affordable Care Act’s rising prices, decreased insurer participation and a vigorous political threat to its survival, consumer enrollment for 2017 is outpacing last year’s, according to new federal data and reports from state officials around the country. The government said it extended the enrollment period by two business days to meet high demand.

Burwell said even though the deadline to obtain coverage starting January 1 has passed, open enrollment for 2017 continues through January 31.

Enrollment through the federal exchange is happening as President-elect Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress discuss repealing the law commonly known as “Obamacare”.

Insurers say they have a contract to provide customers with insurance for 2017, and “it’s a contract they’ll continue to honor”, says Burwell.

Scott Brinkman, secretary of Gov. Matt Bevin’s executive cabinet, says one issue the governor’s administration has with the current expansion system is with the people he says can work, but don’t. Congressional Republicans have signaled they’ll move quickly to repeal the law. Of the nine fictitious consumers approved, five of them were certified for coverage without having to submit any documentation and four more were approved with phony documentation, such as a bogus Social Security number, driver’s license and income.

Roughly 20 million people nationwide have purchase health insurance through marketplace plans, the Department of Health and Human Services reported after the 2015 enrollment period. People can enroll any time in these plans, which are one-third to one-half the cost of Obamacare plans and have broader provider networks. That figure includes more than 2 million new consumers and 4.3 million people who have renewed their plan since the open enrollment period began November 1. Now, the final count for people who have bought coverage is 6.35 million, including 2 million new customers. She said the Internal Revenue Service will be sending direct mail to individuals who went without insurance past year, and thus had to pay a penalty, encouraging them to purchase a plan.

As part of that effort, the Internal Revenue Service will be sending enrollment information in letters to taxpayers who paid a penalty a year ago, reminding them the penalty still exists. HHS predicted in October that an additional 1.1 million people would sign up for 2017 coverage.

“The marketplace is strong”, she said.

“When the existing uninsured population learns about the affordability of coverage, and the choice of coverage, that really does drive their decision”, Slavitt said.

Almost 6.4 million people have signed up for 2017 Obamacare coverage on the federal exchanges – 400,000 more than past year – the federal government said Wednesday.

“These tax cuts would make it much more hard to achieve a sustainable replacement plan that provides meaningful coverage without increasing deficits”, Brookings said.

The report stated Wisconsin’s large group health insurance costs have more than tripled since 2000, increasing 226 percent.