‘Obamacare’ enrollment drops 6 percent in Pennsylvania; Lancaster County number not yet available

The number of Pennsylvania residents getting insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace healthcare.gov dropped about 6 percent this year, federal data show.

The report puts total 2019 healthcare.gov enrollment here at 365,888, down from 389,081 in 2018.

County numbers are not yet available; for 2018, there were 13,588 enrollments here.

Excluding states that run their own marketplaces and have not yet released numbers, the nationwide enrollment tally stands at 8.4 million, compared to 8.7 million for 2018.

“This represents remarkably steady enrollment at a time when a strengthening economy and job market may be reducing the need and demand for subsidized health coverage,” a federal news release said.

In December, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman said that Pennsylvania added 92,000 jobs between October 2017 and October 2018, with the unemployment rate dropping from 4.7 to 4.1 percent in that time.

There were other big changes for 2019, including federal funding cuts for enrollment assistance; the end of the individual mandate penalty; and expansion of short-term plans that generally both cost and cover less than Affordable Care Act plans.

“We have already received complaints about the inadequate coverage offered by short-term, limited-duration plans,” said Altman, who has been warning consumers to beware of short-term plans since the Trump administration loosened restrictions on them a few months ago.

She says those plans should not be presented as an alternative to major medical coverage, as they may not cover emergency care, hospitalization, prescription drugs, maternity care, rehabilitation and mental health care.

The latest figures from the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation are from 2017 and show just 6 percent of Pennsylvania residents bought their own health insurance.

Fifty-two percent of Pennsylvanians had insurance through a job, the report shows, with 20 percent covered by Medicaid, 16 percent covered by Medicare, 1 percent by other public insurance and 6 percent uninsured.

Credit: HEATHER STAUFFER | Staff Writer