Anne Cornwell considered two drastic strategies in her quest to get affordable health insurance premiums last year for herself and her retired husband.

More than 22,500 Nevadans have signed up for health insurance on the state’s Affordable Care Act exchange, up 40 percent over the same period last year, data released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows.

The Silver State Health Insurance Exchange (Exchange), Nevada’s state agency that helps individuals obtain budget-appropriate health coverage through the online marketplace, Nevada Health Link, continues to offer affordable health plans, amidst the increase in individual market premium rates affecting the current 2018 open enrollment period, which runs through December 15 this year.

For those over 65 looking to change their Medicare coverage, an important deadline is quickly approaching.

Consumers coping with the high cost of health insurance are the target market for new plans claiming to be lower-cost alternatives to the Affordable Care Act that fulfill the law’s requirement for health coverage.

Calling it the opportunity of his lifetime, President Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary pledged Wednesday to help lower drug prices and said he’d carry out the Obama-era health law his boss has been unable to erase.