DALLAS — We’ve got good news and bad news about health. Let’s rip off the Band-Aid and do the bad first.
Texas is still the worst in the country for the number of people who are uninsured. But let’s put that Band-Aid back on.
The good news is, we’ve been much worse off than we are right now.
According to the latest Census Household Pulse Survey about insurance coverage, 20.1% percent of Texans were without health care coverage. That is worse than any other state.
But it is better than the 26% of Texans who didn’t have health insurance at the beginning of the year in that same survey.
Undoubtedly, some of those must be people who are newly getting coverage through employers as more people get back on the job and businesses compete for workers. But of course, not all jobs offer that benefit, so there was another big effort earlier this year to get more uninsured people signed up.
Congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden instituted increased subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. And a special enrollment period opened between February and August of this year.
In those six months, 416,987 Texans signed up for insurance and 37% got coverage for $10 or less per month.
You have to qualify for the financial assistance, but those increased subsidies are still in effect now that the regular ACA enrollment period has started for people wanting coverage in 2022.
If you are uninsured and don’t have other options, you can check pricing and sign up now through Jan. 15 of next year. If you sign up by Dec. 15 though, your coverage starts on January 1, 2022.
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