With nearly one quarter of 2014 in the rearview mirror, the news keeps improving for President Obama’s signature legislative achievement. As of March, over 4 million people have now found health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Though this is still short of the original projections, the President recently stated that it is enough to sustain the impact of health reform…
“In an interview with WebMD, Obama said the fact that 4.2 million people have already signed up for plans under federal and state marketplaces mean enough companies will be invested to stay in the system.
‘Well, at this point, enough people are signing up that the Affordable Care Act is going to work. The insurance companies will continue to offer plans,’ the president said. ‘It will be a larger number than that by the end of March 31st, the deadline to get insurance this year.’
Obama noted, however, that the larger question is whether the risk pool is diverse enough to ensure premiums don’t skyrocket, since ‘the more you can spread the risk with more people, the better deal you’re going to get.’
In the days remaining until healthcare enrollment closes, one thing is clear… the Obama administration and healthcare advocates are not leaving things to chance. They have went into overdrive to get people covered before March 31st, focusing specifically on Millennials. Besides Obama’s interesting appearance on Between Two Ferns with Zack Galifianakis (which immediately went viral and caused record traffic on the ACA website), numerous other events are occurring to encourage young adults to sign up. One such event is happening this week at the University of Houston. Called Hot Dogs, Hip Hop and Healthcare, it’s an attempt to further connect students to health options before the enrollment period ends…
“March is the last month to sign up for new affordable health coverage under the new healthcare law. Have questions? Join student organizations: NAACP UH Chapter, Texas Freedom Network Student Chapter at UH, VOX UH: Voices for Planned Parenthood, Student Feminist Organization at UH, and Global at UH for music, food and fun this Thursday, March 20 from 11:30am-2pm at the University of Houston Lynn Eusan Park and learn more about your options.
Certified Application Counselors will be on site to help answer any questions you might have and help students apply for coverage. If you’d like to apply for coverage on campus please bring government issued identification.”
It will be interesting to see if any of the last-minute outreach yields a significant result. In any case, getting the word out certainly can’t hurt.
