Idaho reports 95K in Obamacare signups

Nearly 95,000 Idahoans selected a 2018 health plan on the state’s Obamacare exchange — a drop from last year’s tally that nonetheless thrilled state officials, citing headwinds from Washington, and adds to previously reported totals from dozens of states that used the federal HealthCare.gov website.

Your Health Idaho said the total — a roughly 10 percent drop from 2017 enrollment — was buoyed in part by super-sized premium subsidies, which rose in the wake President Trump’s decision to halt a separate line of payments to insurers.

As a result, customers whose incomes qualified them for taxpayer assistance found cheap or even free plans during the enrollment season that ended Dec. 15.

Idaho, like 10 other states and D.C., is running its own Obamacare exchange.

The state marketplaces are reporting robust 2018 enrollment, and many of them gave customers extra time to enroll, in some cases until Jan. 31. Idaho, however, stuck to the Dec. 15 deadline that Mr. Trump set for states relying on the federal website.

The Trump administration last week reported that 8.8 million customers in 39 states selected coverage on HealthCare.gov for the coming year. The tally was 400,000 shy of last year’s, though it exceeded expectations, given Mr. Trump’s attacks on the law and his decision to cut the enrollment season in half.

Parts of six southern states — Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Texas — were given until the end of this month to enroll on HealthCare.gov in light of recent hurricanes, so the federal-exchange total will inch a bit higher.

Customers in Maine got a similar extension due to an October windstorm.

Looking ahead, Obamacare supporters hope a robust showing from Idaho and other state-run portals, particularly in big states like California and New York, will allow the program to beats the odds and meet or exceed last year’s nationwide total of 12.2 million signups.

Officials in Idaho, a reliably red state, argued their recent performance justified their decision to set up their own health exchange in 2013, when Obamacare launched. Besides qualified health plans, the state enrolled nearly 7,300 people into stand-alone dental plans.

“Despite the enormous uncertainty from Washington, combined with a shortened enrollment period, Your Health Idaho has been able to serve near-record numbers of Idahoans,” said Pat Kelly, executive director of Your Health Idaho.

The exchange said a “significant difference” for 2018 was the extra-generous subsidies that let Idahoans purchase plans with little to no monthly premium.

Earlier this year, Mr. Trump canceled “cost-sharing” payments that reimburse insurers for picking up low-income customers’ costs. Insurers jacked up their rates to make themselves whole, but that triggered a corresponding increase in taxpayer-funded subsidies that defray the cost of Obamacare customers’ premiums.

Enrollments in cheaper bronze plans, which had no monthly premium in some cases, increased by 15 percent over last year in Idaho, exchange officials said.

As it stands, Mr. Trump is chipping away at Obamacare law after Republicans tried and failed to replace it 2017.

He is eyeing regulations that would let people enroll in cheaper and comprehensive policies, either through trade associations or short-term policies. Those moves would likely sap Obamacare’s exchanges of healthy customers needed to put the law on firmer economic footing and keep rates down.

Republican leaders haven’t outlined plans to revisit their repeal-and-replace mission in the coming year, though some Senate Republicans are still pushing a bill that would replace the program with state block grants.

For his part, Mr. Trump said the GOP “essentially” repealed the 2010 Affordable Care Act by using its tax-cut bill to scrap the unpopular mandate requiring Americans to either hold health insurance or pay a tax.

He predicted that Democrats and Republicans would eventually come together to develop a better health program, though it’s unclear when or how that would happen, as Congress enters a bitter midterm election year.

In the meantime, Idaho predicted that only 5-7 percent of its customers would quit the markets in 2019 due to the loss of the mandate. “Fortunately, most of our customers have found there is value to being insured,” Mr. Kelly said.