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Virginians have until the middle of next week to enroll in the state’s public health care exchange, the result of an extension announced on Monday.
Keven Patchett, the director of Virgnina’s marketplace, said that the original Jan. 15 deadline felt “arbitrary,” considering the pattern of continued enrollment he was seeing occur and since January sign-ups don’t kick in until February anyway.
“We’ve looked at the enrollment numbers and enrollment trends, and people are still actively engaged in enrollments,” he said. “We want to make sure that we do everything we can to make it possible for people to get health insurance.”
Over 400,000 people enrolled in 2024, Patchett said. 2024 was the first year Virginia offered open enrollment, after a state law from 2020 that allowed Virginia to set up its own health insurance market. Lawmakers gathered at the Capitol for the restart of the 2025 legislative session Monday praised the progress.
“Virginia’s marketplace has been a resounding success, and these historic enrollment numbers mean that fewer Virginians are a hospital bill away from bankruptcy,” said Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield.
With this year’s session underway wherein a slew of proposed healthcare-focused legislation will be debated, Hashmi said she has also set her sights on federal health insurance laws.
As chair of the senate’s Education and Health committee, she plans to press the U.S. Congress to extend or make permanent some temporary tax credits that help with health care coverage costs that are set to expire at the end of this year.
Recently, Virginia’s federal senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner joined a proposal that could help make the credits permanent.
“Out-of-pocket costs are down and more people are covered (by insurance),” said Freddy Mejia, a policy director with The Commonwealth Institute.
With President-elect Donald Trump set to enter the White House for a new term at the end of the month, Virginia lawmakers like Hashmi hope that the Affordable Care Act will remain intact.
The federal law was a hallmark of former President Barack Obama’s administration, which among other provisions, allowed states to set up their own exchanges. During Trump’s previous presidency, he celebrated congressional efforts to repeal the law that were ultimately unsuccessful, and has since promised changes without concrete details. Cuts to Medicaid, a federal program that helps states provide coverage to people with low incomes or disabilities, may be slashed under a Republican-controlled Congress.
In the meantime, restaurateur Lester Johnson, who owns Mama J’s soul food restaurant in Richmond, stressed that the ACA made it easier for self-employed people and small business owners to get health insurance for themselves and their employees. He said that in certain industries like his, health care benefits are not always a given when it comes to employer-provided coverage.
“This law has been a much needed resource to me, as well as my employees,” he said. “Having access to good health care gives my employees and I the security we need to focus on the work we love.”
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