WASHINGTON — A record nearly 24 million people have already signed up for health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act for 2025 with a week still left in this year’s open enrollment period, the Biden administration announced on Wednesday.
The enrollments bring the total number of Americans who are covered through the act, also known as “Obamacare,” to 45 million, contributing to more people having health insurance now than any other period in the country’s history, according to the White House.
“When I took office, I made a promise to the American people that I would bring down the cost of health care and prescription drugs, make signing up for coverage easier, and strengthen the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “I’m proud that my Administration delivered – even as Republican elected officials, who have been eager to put millions of Americans coverage at risk, stood in the way.”
The 24 million figure includes 3.2 million new enrollees and marks 11.6 million more customers who signed up this year compared to 2021, the year Biden took office. And it’s a feat the president called “no coincidence” in his statement and the White House attributed to, in part, efforts like its investments in "outreach and enrollment assistance.”
“The Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplace and reforms have proven to be successful and critically important for millions of Americans and their families,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said. “Every American should have access to quality, affordable health care — and thanks to the ACA, they do.”
The announcement of record enrollment in the sweeping health care overhaul that Biden, then-vice president, once referred to as a “big f****** deal” on a hot mic when former President Barack Obama signed it into law in 2010, comes as the president is capping his more than five-decades-long career in politics.
In less than two weeks, Biden will hand the White House over to his successor, President-elect Donald Trump, who attempted to repeal the health care legislation during his first term in office. The effort fell short in Congress during his administration in 2017 and Republicans’ crusade against it largely quieted in the years since.
In the lead up to the November election, the now president-elect continued to criticize the act but pledged to only attempt to get rid of it if he can secure a better and less expensive plan. The debate led to what was arguably one of the most memorable lines from the 2024 campaign trail when Trump said he has the “concepts of a plan” to replace Obamacare.
Along with the Affordable Care Act numbers, the administration on Wednesday released a report detailing some of Biden’s other health care accomplishments, giving Medicare the power to negotiate prescription drug prices, creating a lifeline that has answered more than 11 million calls, chats and texts and seeing 46 states expand Medicaid postpartum coverage.