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Enrollment Underway For Affordable Care Act In Arizona

As of Thursday, enrollment is underway for Affordable Care Act health insurance. In a drastic change from previous years, Arizonans are being treated to more choices and better prices after previously experiencing Obamacare issues. 

Open enrollment will run until December 15. 

Over the next year in Arizona, five companies will provide 18 qualified health insurance plans as premiums are anticipated to now be 10 percent lower, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Urban areas of Arizona will be the heaviest concentration of those improvements.


Swapna Reddy, clinical assistant professor at Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions said that changes began this year as “Arizona actually ended up becoming one of the most stable insurance marketplaces.”

During the first year of the ACA marketplace in 2014, HHS stated that 10 insurers were competing to provide over 100 qualified health plans. Due to low prices and high competition, the opportunities were trimmed drastically as no more than three insurers offering five plans remained last year.

The changing landscape resulted in a 2017 premium increase of 117 percent, which was the highest in the nation.

“We had all these insurers, the premiums were very low, then the premiums spiked drastically and we lost so many of the insurers,” Reddy said.

Despite prices having since stabilized, costs remain 134 percent up from the 2014 low opening-year premiums. Experts believe that enrollment and the market will even out sometime this year.

In 2015, enrollment in Arizona peaked at 205,666 patients before falling to 165,758 this year. That figure is expected to remain stable in 2019.

“About in the beginning (of ACA) roughly 200,000 people purchased plans from healthcare.gov,” said Allen Gjersvig, Director at the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers. “In recent years, we’re seeing nationally the uninsured rate start to increase again and I believe it’s related to the rhetoric around repeal and replace.”