Sign up for Affordable Care Act health insurance by Jan. 16

The deadline to sign up for health insurance during open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act is Tuesday. In Illinois, people can go to getcovered.illinois.gov to sign up.Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Folks in Illinois have until Tuesday to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. If you are an adult without coverage, we urge you to enroll.A record number of people — more than 20.3 million — so far have signed up for 2024, the Biden administration announced Wednesday. That’s 8 million more than in 2021 when President Joe Biden took office.In Illinois, 378,222 people recently have signed up or will continue to get coverage this year, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.We’re glad to see the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, is gaining popularity after attempts for years by Republicans to dismantle and discredit it. One Republican, presidential candidate Donald Trump, is still promising to get rid of it.

Editorial

Editorial

“We’re gonna fight for much better health care than Obamacare,” Trump said at a campaign stop in Iowa on Jan. 6. “Obamacare is a catastrophe. Nobody talks about it. You know, without John McCain, we would have had it done.”Trump never has offered an alternative to the ACA. Most Republicans, for good reason, no longer have the political appetite to mess with it (or, we suspect, any solid ideas for a replacement). Approximately six in 10 adults have a favorable view of the law, according to research published in May 2023 by KFF, a health policy and research polling group.States with Republican governors have millions signed up: Florida has more than 4 million, Texas more than 3.2 million, and Georgia more than 1.2 million. In some cases, people are turning to the ACA after being dropped from Medicaid rolls that were expanded during the height of the pandemic.The ACA, like Medicare and health care plans offered by employers, is not perfect. But it continues to improve and could keep you from going broke in the event of a life-altering illness or injury.For many, including many middle-class folks, premiums and deductibles have been lowered substantially because of federal subsidies. The Inflation Reduction Act will keep those subsidies in place through 2025. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expects nine out of 10 customers to qualify for a subsidy — a good reason to see if you are eligible.Send letters to letters@suntimes.com