{"id":7835,"date":"2018-01-05T19:04:02","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T19:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=7835"},"modified":"2018-01-05T19:04:02","modified_gmt":"2018-01-05T19:04:02","slug":"texas-aca-signups-almost-match-last-years-enrollment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=7835","title":{"rendered":"Texas\u2019 ACA Signups Almost Match Last Year\u2019s Enrollment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A volunteer assists a mother and daughter in signing up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Photo: Raedle\/GettyImages<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0With the help of a coalition of consumer and faith-based groups,\u00a01.1 million Texans<\/a>\u00a0have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act for 2018.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Cover Texas Now<\/a>\u00a0coalition stepped in after the Trump administration eliminated most of the funds for signup assistance and cut the open enrollment period in half.<\/p>\n

Bee Moorhead, director of the faith-based group Texas Impact, says groups like hers, which is part of the coalition, helped people overcome many of the roadblocks to obtain subsidized coverage in the federal marketplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is a pretty big project and so, it\u2019s pretty impressive for Texans that, even with such a short enrollment period, we were able to come so close to matching last year\u2019s enrollment numbers,\u201d she states.<\/p>\n

About 1.2 million Texans enrolled last year.<\/p>\n

Though this year\u2019s deadline was Dec. 15, people in counties affected by Hurricane Harvey have until Sunday, Dec. 31, to enroll, so Moorhead says final numbers could be higher.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, almost 9 million people signed up in the 39 states that use the federal marketplace.<\/p>\n

Numbers are still pending for states that manage their own programs.<\/p>\n

While she is proud that the two-dozen groups in the Cover Texas Now coalition were able to boost coverage, Moorhead says she doesn\u2019t want the government to think it can always count on private sector volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing forward, we need to have an understanding that the job of the faith community is to build community and to be a connector for people to the public institutions that are there to serve them, not to displace those institutions,\u201d she states.<\/p>\n

And despite the enrollment numbers, she says Texas in 2018 will continue to have the highest rate of uninsured people in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is heartbreaking to the faith communities in the state that so many Texans don\u2019t get the health care they need because they don\u2019t have health insurance,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019ve been the worst state since they started keeping data about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moorhead adds people needing marketplace coverage will continue to face uncertainty, as Congressional Republicans have vowed to continue efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas \u2013\u00a0With the help of a coalition of consumer and faith-based groups,\u00a01.1 million Texans\u00a0have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act for 2018. The\u00a0Cover Texas Now\u00a0coalition stepped in after the Trump administration eliminated most of the funds for signup assistance and cut the open enrollment period in half. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7836,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7835\/revisions\/7836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}