About 31 million people get their health insurance through pathways established by the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Saturday. That’s a record high, driven by an increase of nearly 4 million between 2020 and 2021.
“As of the most recently available administrative data, 11.3 million consumers were enrolled in Marketplace plans as of February 2021, and 14.8 million people were newly enrolled in Medicaid via the ACA’s expansion of eligibility to adults as of December 2020,” HHS said. “In addition, 1 million individuals were enrolled in the ACA’s Basic Health Program option, and nearly 4 million previously-eligible adults gained coverage under the Medicaid expansion due to enhanced outreach, streamlined applications, and increased federal funding under the ACA.”
Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation noted that the coverage total announced by HHS is probably an undercount at this point, since it doesn’t include those who signed up for health insurance during the special enrollment period created by President Biden. Another ACA expert, Charles Gaba, said that the true number of people covered through Obamacare could be over 33 million, or roughly 10% of the U.S. population.