Biden is opening up Obamacare enrollment and planning an ad blitz.
Eight days into his administration, President Joe Biden took a small step to expand health coverage during the Covid-19 pandemic — one that Donald Trump refused to take last year. In an executive order Biden is signing Thursday, the president directs the US Department of Health and Human Services to open a special enrollment period on HealthCare.gov, allowing Americans to sign up for a new health insurance plan subsidized by the federal government. From February 15 to May 15, people who are uninsured can log on to the federal website and choose a health plan. (HealthCare.gov serves most states but not all; Biden officials said they expected the states that run their own insurance marketplaces to also open up enrollment.) “These actions demonstrate a strong commitment by the Biden-Harris Administration to protect and build on the Affordable Care Act, meet the health care needs created by the pandemic, reduce health care costs, protect access to reproductive health care, and make our health care system easier to navigate and more equitable,” the White House said in a statement announcing the order. Health insurance companies and Democrats in Congress had urged Trump to allow a special enrollment period last spring, when the pandemic was worsening. But the previous administration ultimately decided against it. So Biden’s order signals a shift in the federal government’s willingness to use the Affordable Care Act during an emergency.
