Idaho officials say the number of people who signed up for health insurance under the state insurance exchange was down this year.
The decrease was exactly what officials anticipated would occur with the recent Medicaid expansion.
“Your Health Idaho had 89,000 Idahoans joined through our website. While that is down 14,000 compared to last year, we actually expected a slightly bigger decline because of Medicaid expansion implementation,” said Pat Kelly, executive director of Your Health Idaho.
He says the Medicaid expansion is now providing coverage to thousands of people who were in the so-called Medicaid gap, who previously made too much to qualify for that program. Many of those people who were previously in the state insurance program were moved automatically into Medicaid.
Although the official enrollment period for state health insurance has passed, there is still opportunity to enroll for folks who have had a “qualifying life event”.
“Those are things like having a baby, getting married, getting divorced, maybe losing coverage because of losing employment,” Kelly said.
You can find more information about the late sign up at the Your Health Idaho website.
