More Than 72,000 Nevadans Sign Up for Health Insurance Through Exchange

Open enrollment for government-subsidized health insurance ended with 72,127 Nevada residents selecting a plan or re-enrolling, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced today.

More than 50,000 of those people live in the Las Vegas area, officials said. Insurance coverage for those who signed up by Sunday, the final day of open enrollment, will begin March 1.

“Our focus this year was never on numbers, but always about people,” Bruce Gilbert, executive director of the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, said in a statement. “We believed that if we gave Nevadans access to stable technology and quality health plans, the numbers would take care of themselves.”

Last year, about 32,000 Nevadans received insurance through the exchange marketplace, Gilbert said.

Technical difficulties plagued open enrollment last year, including in Nevada, which was using a state-maintained software system. This year, Nevada Health Link, the state-created organization to help residents find insurance plans based on income, plugged into the federal Healthcare.gov platform, where consumers could complete the enrollment process.

About 11.4 million people nationwide enrolled in plans through the Health Insurance Marketplace during open enrollment this year. The Affordable Care Act requires most U.S. residents to have health coverage or face a tax penalty.

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