October 25, 2017

Obamacare sabotage in Florida: they had the most signups, and now they have the most to lose

https://thinkprogress.org/florida-saw-the-most-obamacare-signups-now-groups-who-helped-people-enroll-are-being-penalized-c225e1430aab/
"The Trump administration has repeatedly undercut the current health law, and most encapsulating of this was yesterday’s decision to end promised subsidy payments to insurance companies. For Florida, this is especially troublesome because more residents there than any other state depend on the ACA marketplace for insurance.  Florida has had the highest number of ACA signups in the country. Approximately 1.7 million people in the state enrolled in private plans offered on the ACA marketplace last open enrollment period. And the uninsured rate dropped from around 20 percent in 2013 to 12.6 percent in 2016. The ACA has worked in Florida even without much cooperation from the state government. Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), one of the staunchest opponents of the current health law, refused federal funds to establish its own state exchange. Instead, residents enroll for coverage on the federally-facilitated marketplace, healthcare.gov. Additionally, the state has not expanded Medicaid. Florida outperformed California’s enrollment numbers by about 200,000 last enrollment period, even though Sacramento agreed to operate its own state-run exchange and is widely supported by local officials. Texas, the second-highest enrollment state that operates on heathcare.gov, had more than half a million less enrollees than Florida last enrollment period. There are many people who qualify for insurance on the Florida marketplace but are not enrolled. Of the 2,500,000 remaining uninsured, 614,000 qualify for subsidized insurance on the marketplace and 246,000 qualify for Medicaid — insurance largely for low-income people — according to a 2016 estimate by the Kaiser Family Foundation."