
After declining enrollment during the Trump administration, a record number of people sign up for coverage.
Health insurance enrollment through the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—discouraged, downplayed, and obstructed by the administration of former President Donald Trump—rebounded sharply in President Joe Biden’s first year in office, setting a new record for coverage nationwide as more than 200,000 people in Wisconsin obtained the extra security.
The most recent open enrollment period to obtain coverage through the ACA marketplace ended Jan. 15, and yet-to-be finalized figures from the US Department of Health and Human Services show more than 14.2 million Americans signed up for a plan, including 205,991 in Wisconsin, a 7.2% increase over the past year.
“ACA enrollment declined under Trump, but the program hardly collapsed,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told CNBC. “The ACA defied every effort by the Trump administration to kill it—the Trump administration and Congress.”