TEXAS, USA — Not long ago I watched someone I know try to navigate a serious, sudden, very expensive illness without insurance coverage. There was a mad scramble to quickly sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, but it wasn’t open enrollment time and this person didn’t qualify for a special enrollment. It was treacherous.
If you are uninsured, open enrollment for coverage under the Affordable Care Act begins Nov. 1, 2022, and runs through Jan. 15, 2023.
After the last enrollment period, Texas set another new record for the number of ACA signups, with 1,840,947 getting coverage. That’s a 42% increase from the number who got insurance that way the year before. That percentage increase was by far more than in any other state.
Still, this state still has a Texas-sized number of uninsured people. At last count there were 5,224,044 Texans without coverage. That is by far more than any other state in the country, too.
If you are thinking of getting insurance in the ACA marketplace, you should know that the average monthly ACA premium in Texas is $86 per month. According to the Biden administration, 4 out of 5 people can find medical coverage for less than $10 dollars per month.
And those extra subsidies that encouraged many people in Texas to sign up during the pandemic have been extended for several more years with the recent signing of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Again, I just saw firsthand how someone who was uninsured racked up medical bills into the tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of about two weeks Get on the site and consider your insurance options. You can also calculate your potential monthly subsidy for coverage here. Additionally, the Texas Department of Insurance has an insurance shopping guide for ACA plans.