Page 12 - Florida Sentinel 2-9-18

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Despite Trump Attacks, Obamacare 2018 Sign-Ups Approaching 12 Million
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Almost 12 million Ameri- cans signed up for 2018 health coverage through mar- ketplaces created by the Af- fordable Care Act, according to a new tally that indicates nationwide enrollment re- mained virtually unchanged from last year despite Presi- dent Trump’s persistent at- tacks on the 2010 health law.
The new enrollment num- bers — which include totals from California and other states that operate their own marketplaces, as well as states that rely on the federal HealthCare.gov marketplace — offer the most detailed pic-
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
ture to date of the insurance markets.
And they suggest surpris- ing strength in many markets
across the country, with con- sumers steadily signing up for health plans even as Trump and his Republican congressional allies derided the markets as crumbling and unaffordable.
“This shows that con- sumers really want and need coverage,” said Trish Riley, executive director of the Na- tional Academy for State Health Policy, which com- piled the nationwide enroll- ment tally.
“These are stable markets and a stable program,” she said.
Florida, which uses HealthCare.gov, and Califor- nia continue to lead all states with 1.7 million and 1.5 mil- lion enrollees, respectively.
The annual enrollment tally remains a relatively crude metric that doesn’t ac- count for what kind of con- sumers are signing up for coverage. And the totals don’t include Americans who are buying health plans on their own rather than through the official marketplaces created by the healthcare law.
But total sign-ups have become an important barom- eter of the law, often called Obamacare.
PAGE 12-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2018