Maryland's health insurance marketplace sees record enrollment

BALTIMORE — More Marylanders are getting health insurance this year through Maryland Health Connection - the state-run health-insurance marketplace, known informally as "Obamacare" - than ever before.

The Health Connection saw a 17 percent increase during November's open enrollment, driven in large part by the fact that Medicaid stopped automatically re-enrolling people each year (as was required by a COVID-era federal government policy), according to a press release from the Maryland Health Connection.

Marylanders must now prove their eligibility for Medicaid each year. Almost half of the new enrollments were from people who no longer qualified for Medicaid, said the Health Connection.

Despite not getting Medicaid, most of them were eligible for COVID-related federal tax credits that lowered their out-of-pocket costs.

Those tax credits will continue through 2025, due to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, said the Health Connection.

Another reason for the enrollment increase was the expanded financial help offered to young adults, which the Health Connection now defines as ages 18 to 37 (up from age 34 last year).

The special financial help lowers young adults' health-insurance premiums by an average $450 a year, and the Maryland General Assembly voted last year to extend the program through 2025. More than 50,000 people qualified for that financial help, which the Health Connection said is "the only one of its type in the country."

The number of new enrollments went up by 64 percent from last year, and enrollment in dental plans rose by 14 percent. A total of 213,895 Marylanders enrolled in the Health Connection's plans this year, up from 182,166 last year.

State health leaders celebrated the milestone, and Maryland Secretary of Health Dr. Laura Herrera Scott said in a statement:

The Health Connection also offered vision plans for the first time this year.