More than 366,000 New Jersey residents signed up in the first two months of enrollment for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. But state officials want residents to know there is still another week to log on and get affordable coverage for 2024.
Some 9 in 10 applicants have qualified for financial help, according to the state, with some finding a plan that costs as little as $10 a month.
To see if you qualify for public subsidies and learn more about the insurance plans available, visit Get Covered NJ, the website for the state-run ACA marketplace, which is open from Nov. 1 through Jan. 31 each year. An individual can earn up to $90,360 — and a family of four as much as $187,200 — and still qualify for federal and state assistance to pay the monthly premium.
“More New Jersey residents have access to quality, affordable health insurance through the marketplace than ever before,” said Justin Zimmerman, acting commissioner of the Department of Banking and Insurance, which oversees the program. New Jersey opted out of the federal Obamacare marketplace and opened its own exchange in 2020, giving the state greater control over plan quality, subsidies and the enrollment schedule.
The state has also hired people to serve as navigators to help residents enroll at no additional cost. Teams will be set up at the following malls this week:
- Thursday 1/25: Menlo Park Mall – 2-6 p.m.
- Friday 1/26: Menlo Park Mall – 1-5 p.m.
- Saturday 1/27: Cherry Hill Mall – 12-4 p.m.
- Sunday 1/28: Cherry Hill Mall – 12-4 p.m.
As of Jan. 2, nearly 115,000 new users had used New Jersey’s marketplace to select a plan for 2024 and some 252,000 were automatically re-enrolled from last year, the department said. In 2023, nearly 321,300 people signed up for coverage during the three-month period, according to state figures.
The federal marketplace — which closed Jan. 16 — enabled a historic 21.3 million Americans to sign up for 2024 plans, according to figures released Wednesday. More than 5 million are new to the federal program, officials said. And, thanks to additional subsidies available this year, 4 out of 5 consumers found plans for less than $10 a month.