After six years the Affordable Care Act is still helping a broad swathe of Americans.
President Barack Obama signed the ACA March 23, 2010. Tyler Graff, a marketplace navigator with the Northwest Missouri Area Agency on Aging, said there continues to be growth nationwide and throughout the state in the number of people enrolling in the ACA’s health insurance exchange.
The number of people enrolled in the ACA’s exchange has grown to 12 million nationwide, Graff said. Another 8 million nationwide obtained or retained insurance through programs that came from the ACA, including Medicaid expansion in some states.
Ron Rowe, vice president of sales with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas City, said the insurance company has seen more people coming to them from the marketplace.
“We have seen a big increase in folks enrolling through exchanges,” Rowe said. “If this is going to work long-term, we have to get more people enrolled.”
He said Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas City had just under 16,000 come from the marketplace in 2014 compared to 21,000 in 2015 and almost 54,000 in 2016 for a total of about 91,000 in the insurance company’s 32 counties.
Almost 80 percent of those coming from the marketplace, he said, receive a subsidy, meaning the government is paying part of their premium.
About 285,000 in Missouri are on the exchanges, Graff said, adding he’s excited to see the number of young people on the exchange increasing. About 180,000 of those 285,000 are under the age of 34, he said.
“That’s the group we call the young invincibles. They think of insurance as illness and they’re not sick so they don’t need health insurance,” Graff said. “Anything can happen at any time regardless of your age. Whether that be a car wreck or an acute illness.”
Graff said navigators in the state have done more outreach at colleges. Their campaign has emphasized that anything can happen and health insurance is necessary even if someone doesn’t have a chronic illness.
“The young invincibles are really listening and are responding in a great way,” Graff said.
Date: March 24, 2016