Record 16.5 million Americans have signed up for affordable care act coverage

More than 3 million new people signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) this year, swelling enrollment numbers to a record 16.3 million Americans.

"On the 10th anniversary of the ACA Marketplaces, the numbers speak for themselves: More people signed up for plans this year than ever before, and the uninsured rate is at an all-time low," Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), said in a statement announcing the enrollment numbers. Just 8 percent of Americans are now uninsured, according to the Associated Press.

The increases for this year included individuals from low-income, immigrant, Black, and Latino communities, Brooks-LaSure noted. "We made unprecedented investments to expand our enrollment organization footprint into nearly every county in the country and targeted the hardest-to-reach communities," Brooks-LaSure told the AP.

Those numbers are double the number of people insured when the ACA marketplaces were launched during the Obama administration nearly a decade ago, the AP reported.

During the past two years, millions of dollars have been spent to help people access low-cost health insurance, including through Medicaid. U.S. states were prevented from removing people from the Medicaid rolls during the pandemic, though millions of people may start losing that coverage this spring. For some, that is because their income is now too high to qualify, the AP reported. Some of those individuals may be able to access new insurance coverage in the ACA marketplace.

The Biden administration is spending $12 million on information specialists who can continue registering those transitioning from Medicaid to the marketplace, the AP reported.