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Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis encourages the public who lack health insurance to sign up during the extended Affordable Care Act (ACA) special enrollment period.
Texas continues to be the state with the most uninsured individuals.
At least five million people in Texas are without health insurance. Specifically, Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington are among the top 10 most uninsured cities in the U.S., according to a new report by Sidecar Health. The rate of uninsured individuals for the whole state of Texas is 21.4%.
"Your mental health is so important and you shouldn't be afraid to get help because of the cost," Ellis said in a post to his Twitter account on June 9. "The ACA special enrollment period has been extended to Aug. 15."
The Texas Comptroller revealed that 56% of uninsured Texans are in households with at least one person who is employed full time. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has determined that 31 million people enrolled for coverage through the Healthcare Marketplace within the past year. Medicaid enrollment is also at an all time high, due to economic problems aggravated by COVID-19 and new regulations creating a 6.2 percentage point increase in the federal match rate if states provide continuous enrollment throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Throughout this time the uninsured rate has declined nationally. Despite the concerning statistics, enrollment did increase in Texas by more than 10% from 2020 through February 2021.
The most recent pandemic relief plan approved by Congress and President Joe Biden created a special enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act Marketplace, enabling uninsured people to get coverage through Aug. 15. A mid-year report for 2021 updating these various statistics is expected to be released as has occurred in previous years. All of this demonstrates the importance of enrolling for health care coverage.