ACA 2019 sign ups drop 4 percent

The number of Americans who signed up for 2019 insurance plans created by the Affordable Care Act fell by about 4 percent to 8.5 million people from 2018, the U.S. government said on Wednesday (Source: “Sign-ups for 2019 Obamacare insurance fall to 8.5 million people,” Reuters, Dec. 19, 2018).

Enrollment had been running about 10 percent lower but picked up during the past week, reflecting a typical trend of last-minute shopping, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma said in a call with reporters. 

Verma said the decrease was due to increased employment, which typically means more people had employer-based health insurance, and that about 100,000 people with Obamacare insurance in Virginia became eligible for the expanded Medicaid program there. 

Wall Street analysts had expected a decline in the federal Obamacare marketplace and had cited competing insurance options, a cut in advertising spending from the previous administration to promote the program and the removal of the law’s individual mandate that had required people to have health insurance or pay a fine.