Open enrollment for Obamacare plans ends Tuesday, Dec. 15; rural customers have more choices than last year

Open enrollment for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act marketplace ends Tuesday, Dec. 15 in most states (14 states and the District of Columbia run their own marketplaces and will be open longer). Rural customers, especially those who are suffering side effects of Covid-19 or fear exposure to it, should remember that they may have increased medical expenses in the future because of it.

"The good news for those shopping for their own coverage is that the Affordable Care Act bars insurers from discriminating against people with medical conditions or charging them more than healthier policyholders," notes Julie Appleby of Kaiser Health News. "Former Covid patients could face a range of physical or mental effects, including lung damage, heart or neurological concerns, anxiety and depression. Although some of these issues will dissipate with time, others may turn out to be long-standing problems."

Rural customers don't have as many choices for insurance as their urban and suburban counterparts. "Researchers noted that rural counties have always struggled to secure a range of payer options and 2021 is no exception: while metro-area counties will have 3.1 payers each on average, non-metropolitan counties will have 2.5 payers per county on average," Kelsey Waddill reports for Health Payer Intelligence. But the situation has improved; only 10% of counties will have access to only one insurer in 2021, down from about 25% in 2020.