The Indicator from Planet Money : NPR

On the show, we’re joined by Dan Weissmann, the host of “An Arm and a Leg”, a podcast all about the cost of health care. He shared some news about changes to Obamacare that happened recently. Remember how four years ago, the Trump administration made a lot of noise about wanting to get rid of Obamacare? Ultimately, they couldn’t get the votes in Congress to actually do it. Well, it turns out the Biden administration has kind of done the opposite: They actually got Congress to expand a lot of things in Obamacare, but without making a lot of noise about it.

Buried in the American Rescue Plan — the giant stimulus bill Congress passed in March 2021 — are ways for many people to save a lot of money on health insurance. For example, over a million people could qualify for basically free health insurance!

So what’s the catch? Why haven’t we heard more about this in the news? In a way, the catch IS that almost nobody’s heard about it, and even those who have probably didn’t realize it applied to them. Also, when it comes to actually signing up? In some cases, even the experts don’t know how to do it. On The Indicator: why it’s so hard to actually give millions of people a break on health insurance.

Check out Dan Weissmann’s show, An Arm and a Leg!

You can enroll or change your Health Insurance Marketplace (Obamacare) plan through August 15, 2021 due to the (COVID-19) emergency.