The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its final report for Open Enrollment Period 6, which ran from November 1, 2018 to December 15, 2018. To read a summary of the report, click here. To view state-level data as well as information at the county and zip code levels, click here. Key highlights from the report include:
- 501,271 North Carolinians selected plans on the Health Insurance Marketplace during Open Enrollment Period 6, including 118,710 new consumers and 382,561 re-enrollees.
- More than 90% of North Carolinians received some form of financial assistance to help cover their health insurance costs.
- The average premium without a subsidy was $729, while the average premium after tax credits were applied was $114.
Thank you for all of your hard work during the most recent open enrollment cycle under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as well as your continued efforts to connect consumers to coverage through the Special Enrollment Period.
In other news…
We would love to end this message on a positive note, but we would be remiss if we did not also make you aware of the latest attack on the ACA. You might recall that in December of last year (the day before open enrollment was scheduled to end, no less), Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that because the individual mandate had been zeroed out in Trump’s tax reform law, the ACA should be deemed unconstitutional as well. When the ruling was first made, however, the Trump administration said the focus should be on removing protections for pre-existing conditions and zeroing out the individual mandate, not the whole law. Well, the Trump administration has apparently changed its mind. Monday night, the Department of Justice asked the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold O’Connor’s entire ruling, including the dismantling of the ACA.
This will have no consequence until approved by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. If approved, however, it would have a devastating effect on the people of our state and country as a whole. Millions would lose their health coverage, including not only consumers who purchase coverage through the Marketplace, but also individuals who have gained coverage through Medicaid expansion.
Please remind consumers that the ACA is still the law of the land and nothing – besides the zeroing out of the individual mandate, which took effect in January of this year – has changed. Consumers with 2019 Marketplace coverage should continue paying their monthly premium and using their coverage, including seeing their doctor and filling their prescriptions.
We will keep you posted on any new developments.
Be well,
NC Get Covered staff