Obamacare 2025 Enrollment Ends With Record 24.2 Million Sign-Ups

A record 24.2 million consumers— including 3.9 million new enrollees—signed up for individual marketplace health insurance through HealthCare.gov and state marketplaces during the 2025 open enrollment period, the Biden administration announced Friday.

Marketplace open enrollment on HealthCare.gov ran through Jan. 15. Consumers who signed up for Obamacare coverage by midnight on that day get health insurance that begins Feb. 1. Enrollment deadlines on state-based marketplaces vary, with some continuing for several more weeks.

“I’m proud of the work done by the Biden-Harris Administration and the U.S Department of Health and Human Services over the past four years to help more people access quality, affordable health care and bring down the uninsured rate,” said a statement from departing Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

Individuals that can’t get health care through their employers can purchase comprehensive, individual coverage through the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act. Strong ACA marketplace enrollment growth in recent years has been driven by expanded premium subsidies—under the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022—that helped pay for coverage.

The 2021 law increased the subsidies, also known as premium tax credits, and expanded eligibility for the subsidies to people earning above 400% of the federal poverty level for 2021 and 2022. The IRA continued those expanded subsidies through 2025.

But the IRA tax credits are slated to expire at the end of 2025 unless funding is renewed by Congress. Republicans, who will control Congress and the White House, have strongly opposed the ACA and renewing funding for the tax credits.

Since the ACA became law in 2010, 50 million Americans—or one in seven—have signed up for marketplace coverage, Becerra said.

“Now, Congress must do its job so those millions of Americans remain covered,” Becerra said. “Congressional inaction would result in costs going up. More than five million people could lose their coverage entirely, and millions of other hard-working Americans could face premium increases of more than 50%.”

The enhanced tax credits allowed four out of five HealthCare.gov consumers to find a plan for $10 or less per month.

“This additional help has made all the difference for people seeking affordable insurance,” Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services, said in a statement.

“For example, a young professional just starting out making $30,000 a year would have previously been expected to contribute around $165 per month but can now pay no more than $50 per month, with even cheaper plans available,” she said.