One state not yet part of insurance enrollment

Uninsured Americans have a special opportunity to sign up for governmentsubsidized health insurance starting this month in nearly every state.

But residents of one state – Idaho – don’t know yet if they’ll get that chance.

Officials haven’t announced whether the state is participating in a threemonth enrollment period that the Biden administration created as a way to expand coverage during the pandemic.

Beginning Monday, residents of most states can sign up through HealthCare.gov, the federal marketplace created by the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Idaho is one of 14 states which operates its own marketplace. The other 13 have announced special enrollment periods that are similar to the federal effort. California, Massachusetts and New York, for example, reopened their exchanges at the beginning of the month.

Vermont announced that its special enrollment period will start Tuesday, leaving Idaho as the holdout.

Meghan McMartin, a spokeswoman for Your Health Idaho, the state’s insurance exchange, told USA TODAY that decisions are still being made.

“Your Health Idaho is currently finalizing the details with our state partners and we hope to have an answer in the very near future,” McMartin said in an emailed response.

In the regular enrollment period for 2021 coverage, more than 79,000 Idahoans signed up through the state health insurance exchange – a drop of about 10,000 from the previous year.

The head of an Idaho health coverage advocacy group is urging Gov. Brad Little to issue an executive order creating a special enrollment period.

“Open enrollment taking place in other states shows there is a real and urgent need,” said Christine Tiddens, director of Idaho Voices for Children. “It would be unfortunate if Idaho was, once again, the only state not to open its exchange enrollment period during these uncertain times.”

The federal government is launching next week a $50 million education campaign.

Administration officials said making people aware of what’s available and how to enroll has always been challenging and is even more important now.

“After four years of attacks on the ACA, this enrollment period is more important than ever,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.

The Trump administration cut back on outreach for the program and resisted calls for a special enrollment period for people who became uninsured during the pandemic.

Annual open enrollment for plans ended in December in most states.

Nearly 9 million uninsured Americans could get free or subsidized health insurance through the special enrollment period, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.