Florida sets a record enrollment for Obamacare with 2.7 million subscribers
“Because a lot of people could get coverage they could afford to use, it provides peace of mind to a lot of Florida families.”
SEFFNER — Sophany Nuth’s 30-hour a week job baking doughnuts doesn’t come with health insurance.
His weekly take-home pay is about $318. With rent, food and other bills, the 35-year-old Seffner father couldn’t afford the $400 a month quotes he got from private health insurers to cover him, his wife and two young children.
He was so worried, Nuth, considered moving his family to Canada or Australia, which have universal health care.
“It’s a big stress in the family,” he said.
But Nuth is staying in Florida after enrolling his family in a health care plan through the Affordable Care Act marketplace that he found with the help of navigators from the Family Healthcare Foundation. It will cost just $18 a month.
He is one of a record 2.7 million Floridians who have signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act for 2022, a 600,000 increase from last year.
The federal program, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, is more popular than ever nationwide, too. A record 14.5 million people signed up for this year, surpassing the previous high by almost 2 million.
That’s despite Republican attempts to challenge it in court and abolish it during President Donald Trump’s term.
The increase is due to President Joe Biden’s administration, which spent more on marketing and increased investment in the availability of subsidies through last year’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, said Jodi Ray, the executive director of Florida Covering Kids & Families. It’s a navigator program based at the University of South Florida in Tampa that coordinates outreach efforts across the state.
The Department of Health and Human Services restored $80 million to fund outreach efforts cut by the previous administration with the goal of quadrupling the number of navigators, who help people pick and enroll in insurance plans. Also, more insurance companies offered plans in the federal market place this year and the cost of premiums remained flat or, in some cases, dropped slightly.
The subsidies, which make some plans as cheap as $10 a month, turned them into a better option for more people, Ray said. The result should be fewer uninsured people waiting until conditions such as asthma turn serious before they head to hospital emergency rooms for treatment.
“Because a lot of people could get coverage they could afford to use,” she said, “it provides peace of mind to a lot of Florida families.”
Ray has heard from navigators that some of the newly insured in Florida recently moved here from other states who moved after losing their jobs during the pandemic or decided to change careers.
That was the case for Erick Moyer, a travel pharmacy technician who moved to Carrollwood from Delaware.
The ACA health plans are intended to help low-income and people whose jobs do not provide health insurance as a benefit. Moyer qualifies because he’s paid about $17 an hour and receives additional income through stipends that, he said, are not considered taxable income.
He has used the ACA marketplace plans for about four years, but this was his first time enrolling in Florida. With the help of a navigator, he chose a silver level plan that will cost about $30 per month thanks to a $600 tax credit subsidy.
That’s far cheaper than the $300 a month insurance offered by his employer.
The money he saves goes to paying down about $200,000 of student loans that he accrued while studying to be a pharmacist.
“It’s a no-brainer,” he said. “I found it was cheaper and better insurance going through the healthcare marketplace.”
The Family Health Foundation, a Tampa nonprofit, was set up to help families and individuals in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Polk counties find insurance.
Last year, the group employed 16 navigators — but most were part-time because the program’s marketing budget was cut. This year, executive director Katie Roders Turner said she was able to hire 25 full-time navigators.
Turner, who has worked on enrollment in the marketplace for nine years, said the U.S. government extended eligibility for the program beyond the previous limit of those who made four times more than the federal poverty level, which is $27,750 for a family of four.
Her navigators saw more people in higher income brackets, particularly small business owners, looking into whether a marketplace plan would work for them.
There are still concerns, however, for the poorest. Those just below the federal poverty level qualify for Medicaid in most states. But Florida is one of 13 that continues to reject a provision of the ACA that would expand Medicaid eligibility to more than 400,000 more Floridians.
Jodi Ray, the executive director of Florida Covering Kids & Families