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This week marked the end of a chaotic and confusing open enrollment season for healthcare.gov. From the moment it began on November 1 to the moment it ended on January 15, many enrollees were watching Congress, wondering if it would restore billions of dollars towards subsidies meant to bring their premium costs down. NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin explains what happened.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Congress has not passed a law to restore the enhanced tax subsidies. That leaves people like Michael Nichols, who runs a hair salon in Indianapolis, with a big new expense. His premium had been about $130 per month.
MICHAEL NICHOLS: Without the subsidies, it's going to go up to over $900. That's going to be a really big stretch.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: He says his salon rent has gone up, and business is lagging.
NICHOLS: I'm noticing my clients are stretching their appointments out further. We're just not getting the walk-ins that we used to get.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: But he renewed his plan anyway. The latest data shows 22.8 million people picked a plan or autorenewed during open enrollment. That represents about a 3% drop from the year before. It's the first time enrollment has dropped in five years. Dr. Mehmet Oz runs the health agency that oversees healthcare.gov and spoke about enrollment numbers on a press call this week.
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MEHMET OZ: There's not a material change, especially if you take into account folks who have left the exchange because they're not supposed to have been on it.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Cynthia Cox is with the health research organization KFF. She says maybe fraudulent enrollment accounts for some of the drop.
CYNTHIA COX: What's also likely happening is that people are being priced out or they're dropping their coverage when they see how much their monthly costs are going up.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Numbers aren't final. They show how many people autorenewed or selected a plan, which is basically like putting it in a shopping cart. It doesn't show how many people paid their premium.
COX: It's also possible that some people are having this lingering hope that there might be a deal in Congress. But if nothing comes along, then they might not be able to continue to afford their coverage and may drop it.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: The House passed a bipartisan extension to the enhanced subsidies earlier this month, but talks in the Senate seemed to have slowed. Then President Trump released his health policy priorities on January 15, the very day open enrollment ended, without mentioning the subsidies. Some Republican lawmakers acknowledged, that put a damper on chances for a deal.
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LISA MURKOWSKI: I'm not giving up because I think what we...
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, for one, told reporters this week she feels for people facing unaffordable premiums and still wants to find a bipartisan compromise.
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MURKOWSKI: I don't think it is too late to salvage something.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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