Campaign Action
Things are looking very good for the first few weeks of enrollment in the Affordable Care Act—better than any previous year, by far. About 300,000 more people signed up in the first two weeks this year than did last year, which in turn had more enrollments than the previous two years. But here's the problem: one of the most effective of Trump's sabotage efforts was lopping weeks off of the enrollment period. That means it ends in three weeks, on December 15, whereas it extended into January in previous years.
Because the Trump administration cut the enrollment period in half this year, to 45 days from three months, weekly sign-ups would need to double to match the number of sign-ups in previous years.
The deadline to sign up this year is Dec. 15 in most states. Last enrollment period, it was Jan. 31.
There are usually two spikes during the enrollment period: one in the middle and one near the end. The first spike is from people signing up before the end of the calendar year in order to get coverage that starts on Jan. 1.
It's the second spike that's going to be the problem, the one at the end. That's when a larger share of the enrollees are younger and healthier, and much more receptive to television ads reminding them that open enrollment will be ending soon. These are the people who help keep the markets stable. And this year, the Trump administration will not be running those ads reminding people to sign up.
So they've got six weeks less to find out about and sign up for Obamacare. Which means that many of them won't be signing up. The last surge of enrollments we've seen in previous years almost certainly won't be there. That makes the job of the grassroots in getting the word out all the more critical. If you can help, please do.
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