Donald Trump’s win for the presidency has caused more than 100,000 people to sign up for Obamacare. Republicans have stated they want to appeal the law if they win the White House.
It is the largest number of enrollees since the open enrollment started on November 1:
The new enrollment figure, released by HHS this afternoon, represents the number of people who submitted an application and chose a health insurance plan on the exchanges.“Best day yet this Open Enrollment. Nov 9: Over 100K plan selections on http://HealthCare.gov . Consumers shopping & enrolling,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell tweeted.
Despite the GOP’s plans, the White House said it will continue with enrollment for 2016:
White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday that officials will still urge people to sign up for coverage through ObamaCare.“There is no specific thing in mind that we’re going to do differently now,” Earnest said as he addressed reporters for the first time since President-elect Trump declared victory.
However, Earnest also told people not to worry about Obamacare post election and hopes people will continue to signup:
“These are benefits that are available to them today, and we’d certainly encourage people to sign up,” he said. “The president elect is going to make his own decisions and worries about those future decisions shouldn’t have any impact on anybody capitalizing on the opportunities that are available to them today on healthcare.gov.”
But some consumers have told media outlets that Trump’s win has frightened them:
That’s what drove Rita Gibbs, a real estate agent in Tucson, to sign up on Healthcare.gov on Wednesday.”I’m horrified about the election results and extremely worried what will happen to my health care,” Gibbs, 54, said in an email. “Everyone I know who gets insurance via the Marketplace is freaked out.”Monday, she told USA TODAY that “Obamacare is a middle-class nightmare.” She earns about $40,000 a year and had to return nearly all of her subsidy for 2015 because she made more money than expected. After the ACA was passed, her premiums went up but the coverage was far better than her pre-ACA plan, which only covered catastrophic care.
But the GOP does not have 60 seats in the Senate to completely overthrow the law. Instead, the senators can use the “process called budget reconciliation, which requires a simple majority to pass. That process could be used to eliminate parts of the law that affect federal spending, including its marketplaces, Medicaid expansion and mandates to buy coverage.”
Trump does have a point…the law has been a catastrophe. President Barack Obama promised we could keep our doctors and our original health insurance plan. Yeah, that’s not happening. My ENT had to drop Aetna because of Obamacare.
Kemberlee is also a victim of Obamacare, causing her health insurance premium to spike 53%.
Cigna announced that it will scale back its Obamacare offerings due to low enrollment. Aetna also dropped many of its Obamacare plans since it lost $430 million. UnitedHealthcare pulled back its Obamacare plans.
Since this has happened, the Obama administration actually said they would “assign affected consumers with remaining insurance companies.” As my coworker Leslie noted:
So, what is the alternative for a customer who rejects the “recommended plan”? Perhaps finding more unaffordable insurance or paying the Obamacare penalty. In fact, nearly 8.1 million taxpayers paid $1,694,088,000 in penalties for not having health insurance in 2014, the first year the penalty was in effect, according to the the Internal Revenue Service.
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