In this March 21, 2021, photo, President Joe Biden speaks with members of the press on the South ... [+]
Health insurance companies may have one of their best years selling individual coverge under the Affordable Care Act thanks to a special open enrollment period implemented by the Biden administration.
The idea behind the special enrollment period is to help those Americans who have lost their jobs along with their health insurance coverage during the Covid-19 pandemic. The special enrollment period, which began February 15, was originally supposed to end May 15, but the Biden administration extended it to Aug. 15.
Just six weeks into the special enrollment period, the Biden administration said in early April that more than 500,000 have signed up for coverage via the healthcare.gov website, also known as the federal healthcare exchange or marketplace as insurers like to call it. Health insurers expect even more Americans to sign up to the ACA’s individual coverage, also known as Obamacare.
A window into the enrollment increase for health insurers could be seen last week when Centene reported the addition of tens of thousands of new members to its Obamacare plans this year aided by the Biden administration’s decision to open and extend to August 15 a special enrollment period for such coverage.
“We think marketplace will continue to be a growth engine,” Michael Neidorff, the chief executive officer of Centene, the nation’s largest provider of individual Obamacare coverage told analysts last week on a call to discuss the company’s first quarter earnings. “Based on data released by (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), Centene is a clear leader in new enrollment on the federal exchange. And since the beginning of the year, we have enrolled over 320,000 new members in our marketplace product.”
Centene, which had 1.9 million Obamacare enrollees as of March 31, was one of the first major Obamacare providers to report its first quarter earnings. Molina Healthcare also reported first quarter earnings last week and chief executive Joseph Zubretsky told analysts the health insurer’s “marketplace membership grew by 302,000 in the quarter to 620,000, exceeding our initial forecast of at least 500,000 members.”
Still to report are Cigna and Oscar Health, which are major players in the Obamacare business, and release their earnings later this month.
But health insurers are expected to continue to benefit from an influx of new members thanks to new regulations and support to the companies and Americans looking for coverage from the Biden administration. That contrasts with the Trump administration, which unsuccessfully tried to get Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act while Trump’s appointees curtailed the Obamacare sign-up periods.
“In our marketplace business, we are pleased to be operating in a supportive environment,” Neidorff told analysts last week. “The administration continues to invest in the product. And just last week, announced an additional $80 million for navigators to boost enrollment.”
