Feds target young uninsured in latest ACA enrollment push

Federal officials this week announced their plans to increase enrollment in the ACA marketplaces, particularly among young adults who have been slow to sign up (Source: “HHS Targets Young Adults In 2017 Obamacare Enrollment Plan,” Kaiser Health News, June 21, 2016).

Open enrollment starts Nov. 1 and ends Jan. 31.

For the first time, the administration said it would send letters about marketplace coverage to uninsured people and to families who paid the individual mandate penalty for not having coverage or claimed an exemption from the health law requirement that they have coverage.

About 7.9 million Americans paid a penalty for lack of coverage in 2014. The Internal Revenue Service has not disclosed how many paid the fine for lacking coverage last year.

About 45 percent of 2014 taxpayers who paid a penalty or claimed an exemption from the penalty were under age 35, according to the Health and Human Services Department.