Thousands Driven to Obamacare Couldn’t Pay and Lost Coverage

A significant portion of people who signed up for Obamacare during the pandemic—usually because of job loss—aren’t getting health coverage because they couldn’t pay their initial premiums.

Almost one-third of some 20,000 Maryland enrollees from March through August didn’t activate their plans. In Washington, one-fifth of a 27,000-enrollee sample are still without coverage due to lack of payment, a sign that Obamacare subsidies may not be enough to help uninsured people get coverage in a public health emergency.

Twelve states that operate their own Affordable Care Act exchanges have opened special enrollment periods outside the normal year-end window in response ...