Reminder: enrollment for Obamacare in 2018 is happening now
As such, enrollment for 2018 health coverage through the public marketplace is currently open and will continue until
Signing up is done at healthcare.gov.
Early reports leading up to open enrollment were that numbers were expected to dip given higher premiums and decisions by President
However, the
The enrollment numbers only include the states that use healthcare.gov, such as
But Claborn said premiums, on average, for the better plans have gone up about 35 percent compared to last year. Because of that, he's seeing more people sign up for plans with lower premiums, but higher deductibles.
"Whether you're on exchange or off exchange, if you're on one of those middle-tier plans that have co-payments for prescriptions and doctors, those premiums went up about 35 percent," Claborn said. "The bronze level premiums went up, just not as high. Those plans are a lot more affordable, but whenever you go to the doctor you pay a lot more... The process of enrolling is still the same, but you'll have to look around a lot more now."
Claborn suggested people wanting to sign up for Obamacare take time to compare plans, not just automatically renew. If someone is changing plans, Claborn recommended making sure their preferred doctor is covered in the new plan.
President
Besides that, the key components of the ACA are still intact. So there's still the individual mandate that creates a financial penalty for anyone without health insurance, the employee mandate that creates a penalty for companies with at least 50 full-time employees not offering insurance, and the protections on pre-existing conditions.
Claborn said health care agents and brokers in
Certified application counselors will assist consumers with completing and submitting the online applications, as well as review, compare, and discuss the application and application options, a representative of the community health center said.
Claborn said a misconception out there is that the Trump administration also took away the subsidies available for low-income individuals or households, but those are still in tact. These subsidies are paid to qualifying consumers in the form of tax credits, and people earning between 100 to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level qualify to help pay their monthly insurance premiums.
According to numbers released by the prior administration, 11.5 million people signed up for coverage in 2017. Estimates released on healthcare.gov showed almost 19,000 people in
Still,
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