Fixing open enrollment starts with staying mad about it

Open enrollment is a headache. Health insurance and FSAs can be a hassle. The American system for providing insurance benefits is as much an accident of history as the result of careful planning, and it is protected as much by inertia and special interests as by any evidence that it is the ideal infrastructure for the world’s wealthiest nation.

But we seem to be stuck with it. How could that be? The truth is that even as a growing number of Americans struggle to afford the care they need, an even bigger number are protective of the benefits they currently have.

If you take a step back, it is a bit of a miracle that the system functions as well as it does. Every year, most Americans will go through lengthy checklists, fill out the necessary forms, and successfully sign up for health insurance and other benefits. That week or two may be stressful. But at the end of it, most people (though far from all) have benefits that help them to pay for health care, dental care and other necessary expenses in the next year.

Only — “only” — 8.4 percent of the US population lacked health insurance in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was the lowest share on record, though it still meant 27.6 million people lacked financial protection against medical costs. About 16 percent of Americans were uninsured in 2009; after the gains of 2010’s Affordable Care Act and with the help of emergency pandemic policies, the country got as close as it ever had to universal coverage.

https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/10/16/23894085/health-insurance-open-enrollment-medical-dental-medicare-obamacare

I only deal with Part D, and even that is a tsores im tuchus (pain in the ass, for those who don't know Yiddish). I'm SO over it!