White House Launches ACA Enrollment Challenge in 20 U.S. Cities
On Friday, the Obama administration announced a challenge that calls on 20 cities, including two in California, to compete to enroll the most U.S. residents in coverage through the Affordable Care Act's exchanges, the Washington Times reports (Howell, Washington Times, 11/6).
Background
The challenge follows the launch of the ACA's third open enrollment period on Nov. 1 (California Healthline, 11/2).
CDC estimates that 9% of U.S. residents, or about 28.5 million people, were uninsured during the first six months of 2015 (California Healthline, 11/6). Meanwhile, HHS estimates that about 10.5 million uninsured U.S. residents are eligible to enroll in coverage through the ACA's exchange (Korte, "The Oval," USA Today, 11/7).
Challenge Details
The competition, called the "Healthy Communities Challenge," aims to target cities that have a high number or percentage of uninsured residents, according to the Times (Washington Times, 11/6).
For the competition, HHS will compare the number of uninsured residents eligible for exchange coverage in the cities at the start of open enrollment with the number of new exchange enrollees at the end of the open enrollment period (White House release, 11/6). The city that enrolls the highest percentage of uninsured residents will win the challenge (Richardson, "The Briefing Room," The Hill, 11/7). Obama will visit the winning city. The winner will be posted after the open enrollment period ends on Jan. 31 (Washington Times, 11/6).
The participating cities include:
- Atlanta;
- Charlotte, N.C.;
- Chicago;
- Dallas;
- Denver;
- Detroit;
- Great Falls, Mont.;
- Kansas City, Mo.;
- Las Vegas;
- Long Beach, Calif.;
- Milwaukee;
- Nashville, Tenn.;
- New Orleans;
- Oakland, Calif.;
- Philadelphia;
- Phoenix;
- Richmond, Va.;
- Salt Lake City;
- Seattle; and
- Tampa, Fla. ("The Oval," USA Today, 11/7).