Saturday is the day that nearly 24 million customers can start purchasing health plans on healthcare.gov and the state-run Obamacare exchanges.
Higher prices and uncertainty await many of those shoppers.
Average premiums聽are expected to聽聽double. The directors who manage marketplace enrollment in states聽including聽Maryland, California, Pennsylvania,聽and Idaho told me and my colleague Julie Appleby聽that people are聽wondering聽how聽they鈥檒l聽scrape聽together hundreds聽鈥斅爋r even thousands聽鈥斅爋f dollars more next year to pay for these plans. Some people are considering plans with five-figure deductibles, like one Virginia Beach, Virginia, family聽facing聽a $20,000 deductible to聽keep their monthly premiums near $70.聽
鈥淭hey might look cheap premium-wise, but the coverage itself is going to end up costing that family a lot,鈥 Deepak Madala, the director of Enroll Virginia, told me this month.
Even as Americans weigh high-priced plans, there鈥檚 the very real possibility that everything could change if Congress strikes a last-minute deal to extend the subsidies before the end of open enrollment, which runs through Jan. 15 in most states.
Behind the scenes, the directors of state-based exchanges are drawing up contingency plans.
In Idaho, the state exchange director says he has 鈥渘otices ready to go鈥 should Congress work something out. California and Maryland are preparing to temporarily close open enrollment if lawmakers agree to extend the subsidies.
On Capitol Hill, insurers are warning lawmakers that time is running out.
“If things go past the first week of December, it does get much more operationally complicated,鈥 Kris Haltmeyer, the vice president for legislative and regulatory policy at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, told me.
Still, a month into the government shutdown, Congress appears no closer to a deal to extend the extra subsidies that have made marketplace health insurance more affordable since 2021, when Democrats first approved a law that provided significant assistance to pay premiums.
Republican and Democratic leaders have expressed a desire to find a solution before those subsidies lapse at year鈥檚 end.
But, as is typical with Congress, each party has different ideas about what a deal might look like. And lawmakers haven鈥檛 agreed even on how to take a first step. Democrats have demanded an agreement on the ACA subsidies before they will vote to fund the federal government. Republicans, meanwhile, have balked, saying they鈥檒l negotiate only after the government is reopened.
