Biden to reopen enrollment for Affordable Care Act policies

"President Biden is scheduled to take executive actions as early as Thursday to reopen federal marketplaces selling Affordable Care Act health plans and to lower recent barriers to joining Medicaid," Amy Goldstein reports for The Washington Post. "The orders will be Biden’s first steps since taking office to help Americans gain health insurance, a prominent campaign goal that has assumed escalating significance as the pandemic has dramatized the need for affordable health care — and deprived millions of Americans coverage as they have lost jobs in the economic fallout."

One order will reopen HealthCare.gov, the online insurance marketplace, for at least a few months. Another order is expected to reverse Trump administration actions that critics say restricted Americans' access to Medicaid, Goldstein reports. 

"It is unclear whether Biden’s order will undo a Trump-era rule allowing states to impose work requirements, or simply direct federal health officials to review rules to make sure they expand coverage to the program that insures about 70 million low-income people in the United States," Goldstein reports.