ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - Today is the final day to sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. That deadline comes with worries that many people will be left without coverage if the ACA, known as Obamacare, is repealed.
Despite the uncertainty, experts say the best thing to do is focus on right now-- making sure you'll be covered with health insurance in 2017.
As of the last update in mid-January, more than 11.5 million Americans had already signed up for insurance through the exchanges, including nearly 400,000 people in Virginia. For those covered by the federal insurance, the future of their healthcare is uncertain-- as President Donald Trump voicing his plans to repeal and replace the act and Congress taking steps to undo the landmark health care law.
Mary Conkling is a student at Jefferson College of Health Science who gets her insurance through the marketplace. She says the security of the ACA has changed a lot since just last year when she began classes at Jefferson.
"There was a lot of security that was brought into that," she says. "Now I feel like there are a lot of insecurities. That causes more stress on the system itself since people don't know what to expect. They're trying to understand and grapple with and compensate for that as well."
During a question and answer session with Senator Tim Kaine at the college yesterday, she spoke up on the potential changes-- saying the sign-up process needs to be easier to understand. She says it's a problem when students in health-related fields are having issues figuring out how ti sign themselves up for health insurance.
"If I'm struggling to understand how to sign up for basic healthcare, I can only begin to imagine how other people are," says Conkling.
Virginians enroll through the federal exchange, instead of a specialized state exchange. As of this morning, Virginia is the 6th largest state to enroll through healthcare.gov.
The Director of the Enroll Virginia Project in Richmond says the most important thing to worry about right now is coverage for this year, and worry about potential changes as they happen.
"We don't have any details yet on what the changes might be and when those changes might occur," says Jill Hanken, the director. "In the meantime, 2017 coverage appears to be stable. Insurance plans are in place, tax credits are in place-- so we absolutely encourage people to get their health coverage for 2017."
The process to repeal or replace the law could take months, even years-- with no major upgrades expected to be put in place until at least 2018. While the prospect of changes can be upsetting, they're not a done deal yet and this isn't the first time there's been uncertainty in the process-- from a rocky rollout in 2013 to challenges in court over the past few years. Experts say it's important to focus on what you can control right now, coverage for this year.
The deadline to sign up is tonight at midnight. Your coverage will begin on March 1 and last throughout 2017. Click here for more information on how to sign up.