Obamacare enrollment dips 3.6% in Texas, 4% nationally

Dec. 19--Enrollment in health insurance plans for 2019 under the Affordable Care Act has slipped about 4 percent from the signup period last year, according to federal data, after a late surge prevented the decline from reaching double digits.

Nearly 8.5 million people in states that use the federal HealthCare.gov marketplace signed up for 2019 coverage by the Dec. 15 deadline, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported, off from about 8.8 million last year. Still, this year's decline had measured 13 percent, compared to last year, after the initial four weeks of open enrollment that began Nov. 1, signaling a pickup in the final stretch.

In Texas, enrollment showed a 3.6 percent slide in the numbers released Wednesday, coming in at 1.09 million people, compared to 1.13 million during open enrollment last year. But that's an improvement from a 7 percent drop through the first four weeks.

The final numbers both nationally and statewide still could climb a bit because they don't include some late sign-ups that came in near the deadline.

A number of factors had spurred concerns among health care advocates that signups would fall significantly this year.

Among them, the Trump administration cut funding for publicity and enrollment support for the second year in a row. Next year also is the first year of the Affordable Care Act -- known as Obamacare -- in which there will be no financial penalty for people who opt to forgo health insurance.

Republicans in Congress opposed to the Affordable Care Act removed the fine beginning in 2019, after failing to repeal the health care law.

The fate of the law was thrown into question last week, when a federal judge in Texas ruled it unconstitutional. Proponents of the law have vowed to appeal, and 2019 coverage isn't expected to be affected.

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