Good news for Obamacare piling up

As the good news for Obamacare piles up, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have announced that Michigan will have more sellers on the healthcare.gov insurance marketplace when the enrollment period for 2015 begins on Oct. 1.

Here’s how Congressman Sandy Levin explained the development in a press release:

“Michigan’s health insurance marketplace, already among the most robust in the nation, is gaining an additional four issuers in 2015, according to preliminary information from 2015 issuer filings to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. That’s a 33 percent increase from 2014 – making Michigan among the states with the largest number of participating issuers within the federally-facilitated marketplaces.

“Nationwide, there will be a 25 percent increase (to 248) in the number of health insurance issuers offering marketplace coverage in 2015 compared to 2014, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. An issue brief from the Department of Health and Human Service Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation is available here.

“Michigan is not losing a single issuer next year, according to the preliminary information. All four entrants are new to the marketplace in Michigan.”

Over at The Washington Post, the paper’s Wonkblog has compiled several stories that detail Obamacare’s upward trajectory.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that 13 million people should be in the market in 2015, the second year for the online service, according to the Los Angeles Times.

After an Obamacare surge, Latinos ages 19 to 64 who lack health coverage fell from 36% to 23% between summer 2013 and spring 2014. That parallels a broader increase in coverage that has taken place with the uninsured rate for U.S. adults under 65 plummeting from 20% to 15% in the same period. That’s also according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Washington Post reports that the Affordable Care Act and particularly the Medicaid expansion has reduced hospitals’ unpaid bills by $5.7 billion.

And The New York Times has a story about the White House relying upon the ACA’s successes to pressure states with Republican governors who have not expanded Medicaid to reverse course. Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas — all with Republican governors — are obvious candidates, according to the newspaper. Health policy experts estimate that 3.5 million people could gain coverage if those states expanded their Medicaid programs.