More Tennesseans than ever signed up for Affordable Care Act health plans last year — nearly 274,000. And the pandemic-related trend lines are expected to continue as open enrollment begins again.
Numbers in Tennessee dropped to roughly 200,000 in 2020 and bumped up slightly to 212,000 in 2021. But the spike for 2022 is being credited to some post-COVID realities, according to those who work as Obamacare navigators, helping Tennesseans qualify for subsidized plans.
“The pandemic created this big fear,” says Aida Whitfield, director of the navigator program for GetCoveredTenn. “People have gone through illness and not being able to go to the doctor. That has been a great lesson to a lot of people.”
For those who have been dubbed the “young invincibles,” who feel little need for health coverage, they’ve now seen COVID take down perfectly healthy people, Whitfield says.
The pandemic also pushed more people into the gig economy, cobbling together contract work but still needing health coverage. And more people are striking out on their own, like Titus Prather who has a wife and baby on the way and works construction full-time.
“I’m working on getting my own company, so I can start building my own construction company,” the 24-year-old father-to-be says. “I’ve been married for about three years and having a baby soon. Just making sure I have everything in order for my family.”
Prather says getting an affordable ACA Marketplace plan is key to making the jump to self-employment — like so many have during the pandemic. He met with a navigator as soon as open enrollment began. He has until Dec. 15 to find coverage that works.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM