Friday is the first day of open enrollment for 2020 coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
The federal health plan is in its seventh year and Delaware’s rate for coverage is dropping for the first time ever. The sole insurer on Delaware’s Marketplace, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware, is lowering its rate by 19%.
Senator Tom Carper, like former Vice President Joe Biden, supports expanding the ACA on the federal level, rather than implementing a Medicare for All plan proposed by some of the other 2020 presidential candidates.
“The idea of saying, ‘Medicare is running out—we expect it to run out of money in the next decade—we’re just going to let everybody in.’ I don’t know how we do the math on that without raising taxes by a whole lot,” said Carper.
The Delaware Healthcare Commission will begin administering a reinsurance program for the Delaware Marketplace in 2020. This will put a $27 million mix of state and federal funds towards reimbursing the most expensive health care claims to try to further drive down the state’s rate.
But the fate of the ACA is currently being decided in the nation’s 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Still, Carper says he suspects the law will be upheld in the Supreme Court even if it is found unconstitutional in the lower court.
“That litigation is likely to continue on not just for months but probably for years. By that point in time we may have a majority in the United States Senate. We may have somebody new in the White House. I hope it’s somebody from Delaware,” he said.
Gov. John Carney signed a law in August codifying the ACA into Delaware law in case it is struck down by the courts. This would protect Delawareans with preexisting conditions in that event.
The ACA enrollment period runs through Dec. 15. More than 22,500 people signed up for coverage through Delaware’s Health Insurance Marketplace last year.
