The state’s total enrollment numbers were recently released, with over 1 in 9 Texans covered.
The 2024 open enrollment period came with a record number of Texan sign-ups for health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The data was released by the federal government as the state uses the federal HealthCare.gov marketplace.
Over 1 in every 9 residents of the state are now covered by health insurance plans sold through the ACA in 2024. This is a notable record, as it was set in the state with the highest number of uninsured residents in the US. According to public health advocates, this trend is promising, as there was an increase of 37 percent in enrollments in the 2024 open enrollment window when compared to last year’s numbers.
In fact, since 2020, the number of available ACA plans in Texas has doubled. The last three years have brought the state among those with the highest enrollment growth during that period. The coverage options were first available to Texas in 2014 and were made to provide residents with coverage when they made too much to qualify for Medicaid but whose employers did not offer coverage benefits.
Many consider the growth in enrollment in health insurance plans to be a win for the state.
“This is a huge success,” said Every Texan senior policy analyst Karla Martinez in a media statement. Every Texan is a policy group that leans to the left.
Texas isn’t the only place where records were broken in ACA enrollments for 2024. National enrollments also broke all previous records, with 16.3 million people enrolled in health insurance plans sold through the marketplaces, according to data released by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Across the country, there has been a doubling in the number of people who signed up through the ACA when compared to the first year in 2014.
“We’ve made record-breaking progress in expanding coverage and lowering health care costs for American families, saving them money and giving more Americans the peace of mind that comes with affordable health insurance,” said US President Joe Biden in a prepared media statement.
