Senator Wyden Asks The Public To Help Shape The Future Of Health Coverage
(Sourced from U.S. Senate Committee on Finance)
Senator Ron Wyden, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, recently released a sweeping request for information (RFI) asking for public feedback on the American health coverage system. The RFI covered a wide range of topics, including ways to simplify how consumers enroll in coverage, the role of agents and brokers, Medicare for All, the usefulness of non-ACA-conforming individual coverage, and reducing wait times caused by red tape. Read more
Test LinkAmericans For Beneficiary Choice Opposes CMS’s Temporary Moratorium On New Agents And Brokers In The Marketplace
AMERICANS FOR BENEFICIARY CHOICE | POLICY BRIEF — Lift the Freeze Roughly 19,000 licensed agents and brokers are locked out of ACA open enrollment. The people who pay for it are the consumers who need help choosing coverage.
November 4, 2026
Open enrollment is underway, and millions of Americans are choosing health coverage. Thousands of licensed, trained professionals who could help them were shut out before the season began.
Every health policy decision should face one question, and it is the question ABC asks of this one:
Does this make it easier or more difficult for consumers to access trusted professionals and find the right coverage?
Judged by that test, the freeze on new agents and brokers fails. On September 22, CMS froze registration for every agent and broker who did not hold a Plan Year 2026 agreement with the Federally-facilitated Exchanges. By CMS’s own estimate, that blocks about 19,000 people who would otherwise have registered this year. The freeze runs through February 1, 2027, and open enrollment closes January 15 in most states. For a new agent, that is a lockout. For a consumer in a HealthCare.gov state, it means fewer professionals to call, fewer people to walk them through plans, subsidies and provider networks, and a thinner safety net in the one season when most people choose coverage.
Americans for Beneficiary Choice (ABC) shares CMS’s goal of stopping fraud, because unauthorized enrollments and plan switching can strip consumers of coverage they depend on. But protecting consumers from fraud and protecting their access to trusted help are not competing goals, and a blanket freeze on newcomers trades one for the other. State insurance regulators have objected to it, two federal lawsuits are challenging it, and the agency that created it can fix it. CMS should lift the freeze, and at the very least open a door for the professionals that consumers and carriers need.
What CMS actually did
The freeze targets agents, but consumers are the ones who will live with it. Early-September reports that a moratorium was under review at the Office of Management and Budget have become reality. On September 23, CMS published an interim final rule, effective September 22, that adds a new provision to federal regulations (45 CFR 155.220(o)). It gives HHS standing authority to pause registration of agents and brokers who lack a current-year Exchange registration, and CMS used that authority the same day.
CMS skipped the usual notice-and-comment process, reasoning that advance warning would set off a rush of last-minute registrations. The freeze lasts until February 1, 2027 unless CMS lifts, extends or changes it. Public comments are due November 21.
Who is affected, and who isn’t
The consumer test: More difficult, and unevenly so. Consumers in states running their own exchanges see no change. Consumers in HealthCare.gov states have fewer professionals to turn to.
On the agent side, the freeze is narrower than a total ban. Where it lands, it lands hard.
| BLOCKED from registering for Plan Year 2027 | NOT affected |
| • First-time agents and brokers newly licensed or entering the Marketplace
• Agency and call-center hires brought on for 2027 who never held a 2026 agreement • Licensed agents who sat out 2026 and want to return • Applies to registration for the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and State-Based Exchanges that use the federal platform (HealthCare.gov states) |
• Anyone with a Plan Year 2026 Exchange agreement: 84,012 agents and brokers had active enrollments in 2026, including 8,937 who were new that year
• State-Based Exchanges that run their own platforms • Web-brokers • Agents whose termination or denial is reversed or whose agreements are reinstated during the freeze |
Beyond the agents themselves, the ripple reaches the agencies that hired for 2027 and the carriers on the federal platform (346 issuers offered Exchange coverage in those states in 2026). At the end of the line are the roughly 12.4 million people enrolled through the Federally-facilitated Exchanges as of February 2026.
The freeze by the numbers
The consumer test: More difficult. The pool of help shrinks while the number of people who need it does not.
These are CMS’s own figures, drawn from the rule’s regulatory impact analysis, except where noted. The consumer numbers come first.
| ≈12.4M | Consumers enrolled through the Federally-facilitated Exchanges as of February 2026. They are the people who depend on this pool of agents and brokers. |
| >75% | Share of HealthCare.gov plan purchases that agents and brokers assisted last year, according to NABIP’s court complaint. |
| ≈490,000 | Consumers enrolled by new agents and brokers during the 2026 open enrollment period. These are the people the blocked agents would have served. |
| ≈19,000 | New agents and brokers CMS expects would have registered during the freeze. Of last year’s new agents, 6,956 made at least one sale during open enrollment, which CMS uses as its stand-in for active sellers. |
| ≈80% | Share of 2026 agents CMS expects to return for 2027, an estimate the agency itself calls uncertain. Roughly one in five will not be back. |
| $71–98M | Commission revenue CMS estimates will shift from blocked agents to incumbents, about $10,000 to $14,000 for each affected agent. |
| ≈ half | Share of blocked agents CMS believes are affiliated with agencies. CMS acknowledges those agencies’ recruiting and training investments are lost. |
What the freeze means on the ground
Consumers: harder to find help
Start with the people at the center of this. Choosing a plan means untangling subsidies, provider networks, drug coverage and eligibility rules, and a trusted professional makes that manageable. Agents and brokers are how most Americans actually enroll: NABIP’s court complaint says they assisted with more than 75% of HealthCare.gov plan purchases last year. In rural and underserved communities, where a local agent is often the main source of one-on-one help, every missing professional is felt more.
New agents are not a rounding error in that picture. They enrolled about 490,000 consumers during the 2026 open enrollment period. CMS predicts enrollment will hold steady and does not expect a service shortage, in part because it expects about 80% of 2026 agents to return, though it calls that estimate uncertain. Even if CMS is right, one in five 2026 agents will not come back, and there will be no new agents to take their place.
The timing raises the stakes. CMS’s own rule warns that unauthorized enrollments can leave consumers with surprise tax bills now that the cap on repaying excess premium tax credits has been eliminated. In late August, CMS also cancelled about 315,000 policies covering more than 760,000 people over missing verification documentation, and reporting indicates some of those enrollees have since been reinstated. Consumers sorting out coverage after that disruption, or making high-stakes subsidy decisions under new rules, need more licensed, accountable guidance, not less.
Carriers and consumer choice
More carriers means more choices for consumers, and some carriers are entering or expanding into new service areas for 2027. State insurance commissioners call that a good thing, but those carriers need agent and call-center capacity to put their plans in front of people, and they cannot hire from a pool limited to people approved in 2026. Established carriers that normally staff up before open enrollment face the same wall. Ordinary turnover, such as retirements, departures and changes in specialty, can leave agencies unable to backfill, which regulators warn could create “agent/broker deserts” in some areas. The consumer who never hears about a new plan option, or who cannot reach anyone to ask, is the one who loses.
Agencies and agents: the business impact
The business damage is real, and it ends up as consumer damage. CMS’s own cost accounting lists a temporary reduction in agent competition, operational losses for agencies and brokerages, and potential job losses for agents who cannot register. Agencies did what they do every year: they recruited, licensed and trained people over the summer to prepare for open enrollment. The freeze arrived in late September, and CMS concedes that spending cannot be recovered. The rule also describes a transfer of commissions from newcomers to incumbents. Whatever the intent, the effect is a market that is harder to enter and easier to hold, and a smaller team of people available to help consumers.
State regulators have already sounded the alarm
The consumer test: State regulators applied the same lens, and they came away worried about consumers’ ability to find help and coverage.
On October 14, the four officers of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners wrote to Peter Nelson, director of CMS’s Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. The signers were Virginia Commissioner Scott White, Rhode Island Director Elizabeth Kelleher Dwyer, Utah Commissioner Jon Pike and South Carolina Director Michael Wise. The letter carries weight because of who sent it: the officials who license agents and regulate carriers in every state. They said they “fully support CMS’s goal of eliminating fraud,” and then made a practical request.
Create a way for state regulators, carriers and agencies to appeal to CMS for exceptions to the moratorium. Applicants with fraudulent intentions would still be blocked, they wrote, while those needed to assist consumers could do their jobs. The commissioners also thanked CMS for improved information sharing on agent investigations and renewed a separate request that CMS stop its Enhanced Direct Enrollment partners from allowing the sharing of National Producer Numbers, which they said is at the heart of unauthorized plan switching.
They asked for a timely resolution because open enrollment was only weeks away. It has now begun, and ABC is not aware of any public response establishing an exception process.
A blanket freeze doesn’t fit the evidence
The consumer test: Consumers deserve protection from fraud and access to trusted help. The evidence says CMS can deliver both without shutting out an entire category of professionals.
CMS’s case rests on a striking statistic. Agents who first registered for 2026 make up about 11% of agents with active enrollments but about 30% of the 569 agents who received notices of intent to terminate in July and August. CMS translates that into roughly three times the risk of noncompliance. That deserves to be taken seriously. It also deserves scrutiny.
Notices are not findings. Among the 160 agents CMS has actually terminated for cause in Plan Year 2026, 11% were new, roughly the same as their share of all active agents.
The freeze skips the group in CMS’s data. The agents CMS flags as higher-risk are those who registered for the first time in 2026, and they are free to return. The people blocked are a different group with no 2027 track record, judged by category rather than conduct.
The targeted tools are working. CMS acknowledges that complaint data from early 2026 already shows a substantial decrease, and that its earlier targeted measures produced meaningful improvements.
The best consumer protections apply to everyone, and they are coming. CMS is rolling out mandatory identity re-proofing through Login.gov or ID.me, verifiable Social Security or immigration document numbers on every agent-assisted application, protections that keep agents off applications consumers complete themselves, and electronic consumer authorization before an agent can act in Enhanced Direct Enrollment. Those controls protect consumers from a bad actor whether they registered in 2019 or 2026. CMS also worries that terminated agents could re-enter by forming new corporate entities. That is a real risk, and an argument for vetting new entrants, not for turning all of them away.
CMS says those controls are not yet final and that it needs more time. Fine. Then the question is not whether to let qualified newcomers in, but when the safeguards are ready to receive them. That answer should be measured in weeks, not tied to a calendar date that falls after open enrollment has ended.
Where the courts stand
Two trade groups have taken the freeze to federal court in Maryland, and both point to consumers as well as their own members. ABC’s call to lift the freeze is a policy position, and it does not depend on how either case comes out.
NABIP. The National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals sued HHS and CMS on October 15. Its complaint alleges violations of the Administrative Procedure Act, arguing that the good-cause exception to notice and comment was insufficient, that HHS exceeded its statutory authority, that CMS froze registrations without substantial evidence, and that CMS unlawfully withheld and delayed training for new agents. NABIP wants the rule and freeze vacated and an injunction allowing agents to train before open enrollment.
HAFA. Health Agents for America, which represents more than 1,000 independent agents, filed its own suit on October 21. It argues that CMS did not weigh the harm to brokers and consumers, that the rule exceeds the agency’s statutory authority, and that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act. It says reduced agent capacity will make it harder for people choosing among plans to understand their options, and it asks the court to stop the freeze before open enrollment.
The government’s response. HHS and CMS oppose the restraining-order request, arguing that NABIP’s claimed injuries are mainly financial rather than irreparable and that it waited about three weeks to seek emergency relief. CMS told Becker’s it does not comment on pending litigation.
At an October 21 hearing, Judge Stephanie Gallagher did not rule on the restraining-order request. She asked HHS how long it would take to make new-agent training available, and set the next hearing for November 5. Litigation is slow and its outcome uncertain. CMS holds a faster path: the rule itself lets the agency lift or modify the freeze at any time.
What ABC is asking CMS to do
The consumer test: Every ask below is meant to make it easier for consumers to reach trusted professionals and find the right coverage.
- Open an exception process now. Give state regulators, carriers and agencies a way to request exceptions for new-carrier launches, critical backfills and underserved areas, as the NAIC has asked, so consumers in those markets are not left without help.
- Reopen new-agent training and registration as soon as identity proofing is live. Do not wait for February 1, a date that falls after open enrollment closes. Let vetted newcomers in once the safeguards are ready.
- Measure consumer access, and show the work. Publish the metrics and conditions that will end the freeze, including how agent availability is holding up in each market, so consumers, agencies, carriers and regulators can plan around them.
- Go after bad actors directly. Finish the new safeguards and keep terminating agents who violate the rules. Protect consumers from fraud without cutting them off from honest help.
Make your voice heard. Comments on the interim final rule are due November 21, 2026, and CMS invites them from interested members of the public. Submit them at regulations.gov (docket CMS-2026-3202, file code CMS-9872-IFC). CMS asks commenters to include supporting facts, evidence and citations, so specifics help: how consumers in your community are finding help this season, how many agents your agency hired, what you spent to train them, and which communities you serve.
Protecting consumers from fraud and keeping trusted help within their reach are not opposites. CMS can do both, and it should.
About Americans for Beneficiary Choice
At Americans for Beneficiary Choice, we believe every American deserves the freedom to choose the healthcare coverage that works best for them. ABC is a growing coalition of consumers, health insurance professionals, industry leaders and advocates united by a shared commitment to protecting and expanding beneficiary choice. We work to advance policies that empower individuals with clear information, trusted guidance and access to a diverse range of coverage options. By championing education, innovation, affordability and consumer-centered solutions, we are building a healthcare system that puts beneficiaries first and ensures they have the confidence and resources to make informed decisions about their health and future.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Temporary Moratoria on Certain Agent and Broker Registration To Participate in the Exchanges (interim final rule with comment period), 91 Fed. Reg. 60317, 60325 (Sept. 23, 2026), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-09-23/pdf/2026-19493.pdf.
Healthcare Dive, “Trade association sues Trump administration over ACA broker, agent freeze” (Oct. 16, 2026), https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/hhs-cms-aca-broker-freeze-lawsuit-nabip/833209/.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60317–19.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60324–26.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60317.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60317–19, 60321.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60328–29.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60328–29.
Elizabeth Casolo, “Agent, broker group sues CMS to block ACA registration freeze,” Becker’s Payer Issues (Oct. 16, 2026), https://www.beckerspayer.com/legal/agent-broker-group-sues-cms-to-block-aca-registration-freeze/.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60332.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60331–32.
Casolo, “Agent, broker group sues CMS to block ACA registration freeze,” Becker’s Payer Issues (Oct. 16, 2026).
91 Fed. Reg. at 60332.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60331.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60330.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60323. See also Casolo, “Agent, broker group sues CMS to block ACA registration freeze,” Becker’s Payer Issues (Oct. 16, 2026).
National Association of Insurance Commissioners, letter to Peter Nelson, Director, Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, CMS (Oct. 14, 2026); see also https://content.naic.org/article/naic-letter-raises-state-concerns-new-agentbroker-moratorium-ahead-aca-open-enrollment.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60323.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60332.
NAIC letter to Director Nelson (Oct. 14, 2026), p. 2.
NAIC letter to Director Nelson (Oct. 14, 2026), p. 2.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60321.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60321–22.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60319–21.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60319, 60325.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60323–24.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60324.
Casolo, “Agent, broker group sues CMS to block ACA registration freeze,” Becker’s Payer Issues (Oct. 16, 2026). See also NABIP, press release, “NABIP Seeks Injunctive Relief Against HHS and CMS Over Marketplace Moratorium Affecting Nearly 19,000 Agents and Brokers” (Oct. 15, 2026), https://nabip.org/media/11423/cms-lawsuit_press-release_final_261015.pdf.
Rebecca Pifer Parduhn, “Trump administration sued for second time over ACA broker freeze,” Healthcare Dive (Oct. 23, 2026), https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/aca-broker-agent-freeze-lawsuit-hafa-hhs-cms/833828/.
Allison Bell, “Judge Delays Decision On Healthcare.Gov Agent Freeze,” BenefitsPRO (Oct. 22, 2026), reprinted by the J&R Report (Oct. 27, 2026), https://jrreport.wordandbrown.com/2026/10/27/judge-delays-decision-on-healthcare-gov-agent-freeze/.
Casolo, “Agent, broker group sues CMS to block ACA registration freeze,” Becker’s Payer Issues (Oct. 16, 2026).
Susan Rupe, “HAFA filing suit over ACA agent moratorium,” InsuranceNewsNet (Oct. 21, 2026), https://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/hafa-filing-suit-over-aca-agent-moratorium.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60317.
91 Fed. Reg. at 60317.
Test LinkA Big Win For Medicare Beneficiaries
Washington, D.C. (August 2025) – Great news for millions of Americans navigating Medicare: a court decision has protected their access to trusted guidance and vital resources. Americans for Beneficiary Choice (ABC) successfully challenged new rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that could have made it harder for people to get the help they need when choosing a Medicare plan. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas sided with ABC, ensuring that beneficiaries won’t lose access to the expert support they count on.
Agents and brokers play a crucial role in helping people understand their options in an increasingly complex healthcare landscape. With so many choices and changing benefits, their advice helps families avoid costly mistakes and find coverage that truly fits their needs. Field Marketing Organizations (FMOs) support these professionals by connecting them with insurance carriers and offering tools, training, and compliance support—all of which ultimately benefit the consumer.
The Court agreed that CMS went too far in trying to limit how much support FMOs can offer. These restrictions would have made it harder for agents and brokers to do what they do best: provide clear, unbiased guidance to the people who need it most.
“Every year, Medicare plans change—deductibles, benefits, formularies, and more,” said Greg Johnson, Executive Director of ABC. “Agents and brokers are the steady hand that helps people make sense of it all and choose coverage that works for their health and their budget.”
With this landmark ruling, millions of Americans will keep access to expert help when choosing their Medicare plan, with no extra costs or confusion. This decision reaffirms the importance of choice, transparency, and trusted guidance—ensuring that every Medicare beneficiary can move forward with confidence and clarity.
Test Link