KFF Health News Profiles Marketplace Assister Helping Uninsured Enrollee
In a HealthQ feature, KFF Health News and Nashville Public Radio follow a 22-year-old uninsured St. Louis gas station manager as he meets with an independent marketplace assister to review ACA coverage options for 2027 open enrollment, which runs through the Jan. 15 deadline. The piece explains that subsidy eligibility depends on projected income, with discounts available for households under 400% of the federal poverty level, and notes the enrollee previously lost Medicaid coverage for a chronic condition after starting work. It also reports that the Trump administration cut funding for independent assisters and navigator nonprofits by roughly 90% in 2025, citing CMS's description of the program as inefficient, which reduced the number of paid navigators in Ohio from 50 to five.