{"id":19694,"date":"2025-10-30T12:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T12:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/19694\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T12:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T12:34:11","slug":"pennsylvania-aca-open-enrollment-begins-nov-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/19694\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania ACA open enrollment begins Nov. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

The window is closing for Affordable Care Act customers to see any last-minute federal health insurance subsidies come through before the start of open enrollment, which begins Saturday, Nov. 1.\n<\/p>\n

It means that nearly 500,000 people in Pennsylvania who buy plans on Pennie, the state\u2019s ACA marketplace, will need to shop for coverage that will cost them, on average, double<\/a> what they paid last year.\n<\/p>\n

If Congress extends enhanced premium tax credits and ends the government shutdown after open enrollment has already begun, Pennsylvania insurance experts are expecting to see mass disruption and confusion as the changes take place.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cIf Congress passes something, we will need time to update the system, we will need time to update everyone\u2019s costs,\u201d said Devon Trolley, executive director at Pennie. \u201cThat is going to be very messy. We essentially have to tell people, \u2018What we told you before is now wrong, just stick with us, hold on, we\u2019ll be back in touch with your actual amount.\u2019 That\u2019s a really stressful situation to put people in.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Important open enrollment deadlines and the status of tax credits<\/p>\n

Pennie<\/a> open enrollment begins Nov. 1. That\u2019s when small business owners and people who don\u2019t get health insurance from an employer can shop for plans and make changes to coverage for 2026.\n<\/p>\n

About 9 in 10 Pennie customers have qualified for some form of financial subsidy that helps lower their monthly premium payments. Tax credits are calculated based on income and ensure that only a certain percentage of a person\u2019s income goes toward premium costs.\n<\/p>\n

In 2021, Congress passed additional or \u201cenhanced\u201d tax credits that lowered those premiums even more and expanded eligibility, making insurance affordable for more people. But those additional subsidies expire<\/a> at the end of 2025 if Congress does not extend them.\n<\/p>\n

The tax credits have become a sticking point<\/a> between Democrats and Republicans in debates over reopening the federal government.\n<\/p>\n

When Pennsylvanians shop online starting Saturday, the higher prices they will see reflect the expected loss<\/a> of the enhanced subsidies and premium price increases<\/a> that were requested by health insurance companies.\n<\/p>\n

While people may be tempted to drop coverage immediately based on sticker shock, Trolley said they should reconsider.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere might be something else that can fit in your budget,\u201d she said. \u201cIt means likely making tradeoffs, and I know those are not easy tradeoffs to make, but there\u2019s still a lot of value in protecting against medical bankruptcy for emergencies and being able to get free preventative care.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5892,28,30,29,13767],"class_list":["post-19694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-affordable-care-act","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-tax-credits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}