President Joe Biden expected to reopen enrollment on the federal Affordable Care Act exchanges on Thursday as part of a series of executive actions related to health care, taking a step to help uninsured Americans that his predecessor rejected.
It will be Biden’s first move toward delivering on his campaign promise to bolster the landmark health reform law that he championed as vice president. And it comes as more Americans could be facing the loss of coverage because of the pandemic-fueled economic downturn.Biden has turned to executive actions in his first days in office to swiftly start putting in place his agenda and to wipe out that of his predecessor.
Making the changes work
The key to reopening enrollment will be publicizing it and providing help for people to sign up, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation discussion with navigators who assist those looking for coverage on the exchanges. They also say the period should last more than six weeks.
The Trump administration slashed advertising by 90% and deeply cut funding for enrollment assistance — two measures Biden is expected to reverse. Unspent revenue from exchange user fees appear to have accumulated to more than $1 billion over fiscal years 2018 to 2020, according to Kaiser.
Just over half of consumers who looked for coverage during the open enrollment period for 2020 coverage encountered difficulties, and nearly 5 million folks sought in-person help but couldn’t get it, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis released Monday.
