Open Enrollment Season: Building on Our Current System Continues to Work 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As 2024 Marketplace Open Enrollment, Medicare Open Enrollment, and employer sponsored insurance (ESI) benefits selection kick off, trends across Medicare, marketplace plans, and ESI show that our current system is working to provide multiple coverage options to a growing number of Americans. This is further proof that when private and public plans work together, more Americans can gain access to high-quality, affordable health care coverage.  

2024 Medicare open enrollment is already in full swing: 

• Data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) shows that Medicare enrollment is expected to jump to 66.3 million Americans in 2024. Additionally, enrollment in the program is expected to surpass 76 million Americans by 2031. (CMS, 9/6/23) 
  • This is a significant growth in enrollees compared to the 2023 projection of 64.9 million enrollees. (CMS, 9/6/23) 
• “As expected, people with Medicare will continue to have robust options and stable benefit offerings in the MA [Medicare Advantage] market. We encourage individuals eligible for Medicare to review these options as well as Traditional Medicare and enroll in the option that best meets their health needs,” said CMS Deputy Administrator and Director of the Center for Medicare Meena Seshamani, M.D., Ph.D. (Fierce Healthcare, 9/26/23) 

The most recent Exchange enrollment data shows:  

• According to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), 16,357,030 Americans selected a Marketplace plan during the 2023 Open Enrollment Period. (KFF, 9/7/23) 
  • This is an increase from the previous year when 14,511,077 Americans selected Marketplace plans.  
  • A KFF analysis shows enrollment in individual marketplace plans continues to grow, which can be attributed to building on current public health programs. (KFF, 9/7/23) 
    • As KFF points out, enhancements to our current system “didn’t simply bring people from off-Marketplace plans to the Marketplace; the subsidies also helped bring overall individual market enrollment higher, up to 18.2 million in early 2023, an increase of about 29% from early 2020.” (KFF, 9/7/23) 
• Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that in 2022, “of the subtypes of health insurance coverage, employment-based insurance was the most common, covering 54.5 percent of the population for some or all of the calendar year.” (U.S. Census Bureau, 9/12/23) 

Recent polling shows that a majority of likely voters (51%) are SATISFIED with America’s current health insurance system overall, and an even larger majority (73%) are SATISFIED with their current health insurance plan. Instead of starting over with unaffordable proposals like the public option, Medicare at 60, and Medicare for All, lawmakers should continue to advance proven policies that build on what already works in health care. 

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