Time to Sign Up!

If someone in your family was faced with a sudden medical problem, do you know how you would pay for it? Some people receive health insurance through their jobs. Others, however, rely upon the federal health insurance exchange. You may have heard this referred to as the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.” Millions of Americans rely on this program. However, the Trump administration has drastically cut back on the amount of money it is willing to spend advertising and promoting the program. Here, Election Central takes a closer look at these cuts, and what it may mean to Americans who depend on the federal health insurance exchange to access reliable health care for themselves and their families.

Navigating the Changes

There are many different options in the federal health insurance exchange, each with different costs and benefits. But figuring out which plan to choose can be difficult. That’s why the federal government has “navigators,” whose job it is to help people figure out the different plans and make good decisions. The current administration has drastically slashed how much it is willing to spend on navigators. In 2016, the government spent $63 million. That dropped to $36 million in 2017, and again to only $10 million this year, despite the fact that there has been no drop in the number of people who require this assistance. That means that people are left to figure out the different plans on their own, which can be very challenging. They can also speak with a navigator over the phone versus having an in-person appointment. Nearly 800 counties nationwide will have no federally funded navigator at all.

Counties are responding to this in different ways. Some have accepted donations from nonprofit organizations and private entities to fund independent insurance agents to help act as navigators. Others are relying on volunteers to walk people through the various programs.

Other Cuts

The open enrollment period to sign up for coverage is short: about six weeks. It runs from November 1 to December 15. The problem is that this narrow window doesn’t give people much time to research the options and enroll if they aren’t paying attention. The Trump administration has added to this burden by slashing the amount of money spent on advertising for this program by 90 percent, which drastically limits the number of people who will be reminded to sign up.

So far, there has already been a visible drop in enrollment: only 2.4 million have signed up, compared to the 2.8 million who had signed up by this point in the enrollment period last year. Pennsylvania and Missouri are both down 25 percent, with Ohio close behind at a 20 percent reduction. This is attributable to other factors as well, such as the fact that this is the first year that there is no individual mandate. (That means that people who choose not to sign up for health insurance won’t face a penalty, as they did under the Obama administration.) But by and large, health experts agree that the lower enrollment has more to do with lack of advertising than with personal choice.

But those who find out about the enrollment window in time, and manage to secure an appointment with a navigator, still face an additional challenge. Under the Trump administration, navigators are directed to encourage people to sign on to lower-cost, lower-benefit programs. Why does this matter? While it saves the federal government money, signing on to a lower-benefit program means that if your family were to ever find themselves in a medical crisis, your low-cost insurance program might not be enough to cover your expenses. And that’s a dangerous situation to be in.

Dig Deeper Visit www.HealthCare.gov to learn more about the various health insurance programs and options. If you needed to choose a program on your own, do you think you would be able to make the right decision? Explain.