State health exchange open for business despite Trump moves

As annual enrollment on the New York State of Health exchange opened on Nov. 1, state officials were getting the word out that the health insurance markets are still active amid federal uncertainty over the law.

President Donald Trump earlier this month declared the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, “dead” and “gone,” as the Republican-controlled Congress has spent several months attempting to pass a bill to replace the 2010 health care law signed by President Barack Obama. In response, New York officials have stressed that its market is still open to renew insurance plans or sign up for a new policy.

“Despite the ongoing debate in Washington over the future of the Affordable Care Act, New York’s marketplace remains open and strong as ever,” New York State of Health Executive Director Donna Frescatore said in a statement.

“The ACA is still the law ”” and New Yorkers should know they can enroll starting November 1st to find the right coverage for their needs,” Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman echoed last week.

The open enrollment period will run for three months through Jan. 31, 2018. The deadline applies to commercial qualified health plans offered on the state exchange. Enrollment in Medicaid, Child Health Plus and the Essential Plan insurance offerings is open year-round.

The state expects to renew coverage for more than 400,000 households during the open enrollment period and enroll new customers. New York has 12 insurers offering qualified commercial health plans through its exchange for 2018 and 15 insurers offering the Essential Plan.

Overall, about 4.1 million people get health insurance through the New York State of Health exchange, according to state enrollment data. That includes 2.8 million enrollees in Medicaid, 683,000 New Yorkers on the state”™s Essential Plan, about 350,000 in the Child Health Plus plan and about 228,000 residents on qualified commercial health plans.

In Westchester, nearly 152,000 people enrolled in plans on the state’s exchange last year, including about 100,000 in Medicaid plans, 13,000 in Child Health Plus plans, 23,000 in the Essential Plan and just under 15,000 enrollees in commercial plans.

New York, along with 11 other states and the District of Columbia, runs its own health exchange separate from the federal exchange used by residents of 38 states that opted not to operate their own exchanges. That somewhat insulates the New York exchange from turmoil in the law at the federal level. Running its own exchange also allows New York to extend the enrollment period beyond the earlier Dec. 15 cutoff set by the Trump administration.

Trump has cut the federal advertising budget for this year”™s open enrollment significantly, to $10 million from $100 million last year. Those cuts, paired with confusion caused by Republicans”™ ongoing effort to repeal the law, have some health officials concerned about declines in enrollment nationally.

Joshua Peck, who served as HealthCare.gov”™s chief marketing officer under Obama, predicted in a post on Medium that 1.1 million fewer people will be covered through the exchanges because of the cuts in advertising and outreach.

New York State of Health announced last week it would expand its outreach campaign, including partnerships with pharmacies across the state.

The Westchester County Department of Health has eight health care “navigators” to help residents with enrollment. Nonprofit organizations throughout the state, such as Westchester Disabled on the Move, also offer navigators to help people enroll in health plans.

Some insurers have expanded their own advertising efforts in New York. Oscar Health, which in Westchester County offers individual qualified health plans, has launched a multimillion-dollar campaign in the six states it operates that will include TV, radio and ads on public transit.

In August, New York regulators approved rate increases of 15 percent on average in 2018 for companies offering qualified plans on the state exchange. The state has said that for lower-income enrollees who are eligible for tax credits, premium costs for silver-level plans will be about the same or lower than last year.

Both state officials and insurers blamed the rising premiums on increasing medical costs, particularly the cost of prescription drugs. But additional rate increases were also granted to account for the likely loss of cost share reduction payments, a provision in the Affordable Care Act that provides federal funds to insurers to offset individual plans with low out-of-pocket costs.

Trump announced last month that he would end those payments to insurers, which he claims are a bailout to insurance companies and cannot be lawfully disbursed by the White House. Schneiderman is leading a lawsuit with 19 other state attorneys general challenging Trump”™s withholding of the subsidies.