Historic Boost in Funding Will Help Secure Affordable Coverage for Millions of Americans
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Biden-Harris administration announced the 44 organizations in the 28 states using HealthCare.gov that will receive the first five-year investment in Navigator funding in history. The $500 million investment will increase the number of people with affordable coverage by supporting outreach, education, and enrollment efforts to make sure people know how to enroll in a plan and stay covered. This is another investment made by the Biden-Harris administration to strengthen the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and ensure people have the health care they need.
Navigators help connect people in underserved communities to health care, ensuring that language barriers or confusing paperwork doesn’t stand in the way of families getting covered. This year, a record 21.4 million Americans enrolled in ACA coverage, with the average family saving $2,400 a year thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. In response, Protect Our Care Executive Director Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement:
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are health care champions. The Biden-Harris administration is working around the clock to ensure everyone can get the health care they need for years to come. When Donald Trump was in the White House, he tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and when he failed, his administration deliberately sabotaged the ACA, drastically reducing enrollment. As a result, President Biden inherited a broken system that left Navigators underfunded and millions of people uninsured. Now, thanks to the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to expanding access to affordable health care, more people are covered than ever before. Millions more have the peace of mind knowing they can go to the doctor when they get sick without worrying about affording other necessities like food or rent. This long-term investment not only gives Navigators the resources they need to help families enroll in coverage, but it also protects them from the MAGA agenda to cut funding and sabotage the ACA. The Biden-Harris administration has delivered another health care win for the American people.”
Background
Trump’s Navigator Funding Cuts Contributed To People Losing Their Coverage. Trump cut the ACA Navigator program by over 80 percent while he was in office, from $63 million in the final year of the Obama administration to just $10 million per year from 2018 to 2020. During the Trump administration, enrollment in ACA coverage dropped by over 1.27 million people and a KFF consumer assistance survey found that there was a significant need for enrollment help while navigating the complex application and enrollment process..
Project 2025 Will Raise Health Care Costs Under The ACA. Repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, as proposed in Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, will eliminate premium tax credits that make health care more accessible and less expensive. Getting rid of tax credits threatens coverage for the over 20 million who buy their own coverage through the Marketplace and receive tax credits to lower their health care premiums. Ending the tax credits would mean a typical 60-year-old couple making $80,000 per year would see their premiums triple to over $24,000 per year and premiums for a family of four making $125,000 would increase by $7,676.
Biden-Harris Administration Has Made Historic Investments In The Navigator Program. In addition to today’s announcement, ahead of the 2022 open enrollment cycle, the Biden-Harris Administration invested $80 million to the Navigator program, quadrupling the Navigator budget at that time and helping increase enrollment that year from just over 12 million to 14.5 million people. For the 2023 open enrollment cycle, the administration invested a historic near $100 million into the Navigator program to help consumers navigate the application and enrollment process for the ACA Marketplace, Medicaid, and CHIP to make health care more affordable and accessible to everyone.