Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Thousands fewer sign up for Obamacare in Nevada

Health Insurance Deadline Approaching

Steve Marcus

Heather Korbulic, executive director of Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, speaks during a news conference on health insurance at the Sawyer State Building Friday, Dec. 14, 2018.

Nearly 7,400 fewer people will be on Obamacare health insurance plans in Nevada next year.

Enrollment fell from its peak of 91,003 last year to 83,647 for the 2019 plan year, according to the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange.

Fewer people had been enrolling week over week in Nevada compared to last year, but Heather Korbulic, director of the exchange, had said she was hoping a typical surge in the final week of open enrollment would make up for the losses.

Obamacare enrollment has steadily been rising on the exchange since it opened in Nevada. The state’s exchange started with an enrollment of 38,000 for the 2014 plan year, increasing to 73,596 the following year, 88,145 the year after that and 89,061 for 2017.

Korbulic has been critical of several steps taken by the Trump administration, such as cutting the open enrollment period in half and raising the cap on limited-benefit health plans. The GOP tax reform law repealed the individual mandate, opening the door for a ruling against the Affordable Care Act.

“Even with the repeal of the individual mandate, introduction of competing plans and an improving job market, the exchange continued to enroll new consumers and re-enroll thousands of existing customers,” Korbulic said in a statement.

“As a result of the work being done by the exchange, our stakeholders and community partners, thousands of Nevadans were able to secure health coverage that will give them greater access to care and an opportunity to live healthier, more productive lives,” she said.