Staff reports | If you are uninsured and want health insurance but missed signing up in a short window just before Christmas, you have until May 15 to apply for coverage. Local groups are ready to help.
Last month, an executive order by President Joe Biden, who promised to make health care more affordable and available for people without work-provided coverage, reopened Affordable Care Act enrollment on the federal health insurance exchange in a special enrollment period.
The Palmetto Project’s director of programs, Shelli Quenga, said that the only thing stopping many people from enrolling before was the lack of information, and the new administration has helped.
“When people know the facts and the truth of the ability to enroll, that really helps,” Quenga said. “Most people are covered by their employer-sponsored coverage, but they just don’t know how individual coverage works. It’s stuff you don’t need to know until you need to know it.”
Since the ACA was passed in 2010, the GOP-led S.C. General Assembly has refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA, leaving more than 100,000 people in a coverage gap during the ongoing pandemic. And, it’s unlikely state legislators will expand Medicaid any time soon, after a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that allows states to decline Medicaid expansion gave an out to then-Gov. Nikki Haley.
- For more information on open enrollment and to see what options are available, go to signupsc.org or call 888-998-4646.
- Have a comment? Send to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com.
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