Affordable Care Act Exchanges Open

October 2013

On October 1, the health insurance exchanges opened in California at CoveredCA.com. This was an extraordinary day for our country, when those who are uninsured finally had the ability to purchase insurance on the open marketplace.

More than one million people accessed HealthCare.gov, the website for residents of the 36 states not running their own exchanges, on the morning of October 1 before 7 am EDT to seek information about their options and sign up for health insurance coverage to begin January 1, 2014. The news coming from other states was nothing short of incredible. For instance, the Washington Post reported that New York's exchange website had more than 2 million visitors before noon on October 1, when the state has 2.5 million uninsured residents total.

"More people in California die each year because they don’t have health insurance than any other state in the country. Fifteen percent of Americans don't have health insurance. Now, with the Affordable Care Act, nurses and other health care professionals can take care of patients who need treatment, before their conditions become too dire to be fixed,” said Ken Deitz, RN, UNAC/UHCP President. “As health care professionals, we celebrate this historic day.”