It’s a record year for signups for the Health Insurance Marketplace in Delaware.

A year after over 35,000 enrolled on the Delaware Health Insurance Marketplace, just under 45,000 (44,842) signed up this year.

That’s an increase of 29% – and compared to 2021, it’s up 77%.

Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro says one major factor in the higher enrollment over the past two years is the state marketplace now includes four companies with more than 50 options.

Seven years ago, when just over 20,000 signed up for coverage, there was only one provider with 10 options.

Navarro also credits help from the Biden Administration.

“Since the Biden Administration has reinstituted things like funds for advertising for extending the open enrollment period, and not do things like the previous administration did,” said Navarro. “They did web maintenance on Sundays when people would be signing up in open enrollment. So they did all types of things to try to kill it by a thousand paper cuts.”

Navarro also points to the state codifying most protections of the Affordable Care Act in Delaware law.

He says while that largely protects the marketplace in the First State, there are ways a different administration could try to make enrolling tougher.

“They could shorten the enrollment period. They could cut funding for navigators. They could do a number of things which they did years ago during the previous administration,” said Navarro.

This year is the 11^th year of open enrollment since approval of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.