New Updates: MS, OH, NM, MA, WY & a major one from CA!

Mississippi: Private up to 2,000 from 802 (h/t Steve Mullinax, aka rsmpdx)

Transcript from Jeffrey Hess of Mississippi Public Radio, NPR Audio:

Only two insurance companies are offering plans in Mississippi, and they only overlap in four of the state’s 82 counties. However, those two companies appear to be betting that the web site problems and skepticism about the exchange in general are passing. One of the two companies, Humana, launched a late-December ad campaign to drive more people to the site, says spokesman Mitch Lubitz. “There’s been a ramp-up as the HealthCare.gov web site has gotten easier to use and there have been other options for people to go on and get information and enroll.” Mississipi’s Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney says the improvements to the enrollment process are good, but he’s still skeptical they’ll be able to get enough people signed up this year. “From zero to ten, I’d give it a confidence level of about a three.” Hess: “That’s still not very good.” Chaney: “That’s not, but it’s better than where I was, a one, a week before last. “Chaney says the unofficial count is around two thousand people enrolled, but he says if the confidence trend continues upward, his confidence will rise to a five.”

Ohio: Medicaid up to 17,000 from 9,231 (another 25,000 pending but not counted on ss) (h/t ItsSimpleSimon)

Many people who thought that they applied for Medicaid through HealthCare.gov – about 25,000 in Ohio – did not have their applications transferred to state Medicaid agencies, which make the final determination and administer the programs....Outside the HealthCare.gov system, Ohio has received about 17,000 Medicaid applications directly through its own website, Benefits.Ohio.gov. These applications are not affected by the federal government data problems, and the state says it has encouraged people to apply to it directly because it has worried about the federal data glitches and changing dates and deadlines involving HealthCare.gov

New Mexico: Private up to at least 2,012 (+ 1,275 off-exchange!) from 934 (h/t overratedbutnottoday)

Presbyterian reports that 2,012 individuals have purchased the company’s insurance via the federal exchange as of Monday. About 1,275 more individuals have purchased exchange-based products directly from Presbyterian.

Note that this is only for 1 of the 4 insurance companies operating on the exchange in New Mexico. Also note that I've separated out the 1,275 who purchased the same policies directly through the company instead of via the Exchange into a new, third spreadsheet column, "Direct (Off-Exchange) Enrollments" which I hope to start filling in soon. Finally, note that this also doesn't include small business exchange purchases, which I'm not listing yet but may in the future.

New Mexico operates an insurance exchange that allows small businesses to buy health insurance for employees. That exchange has enrolled 340 employees and their dependents, a state exchange official reported this week.

Massachusetts: Private (fully paid) up to 3,262 from 2,800

(Bottom of the first graphic: "3,262 people have enrolled in and paid for a new unsubsidized plan.")

Wyoming: Private up to "approaching 2,500" from 521

“Clearly Christmas Eve and Christmas Day there were fewer calls,” WINHealth Chief Executive Steve Goldstone said Monday, “but other than that we’ve been working feverishly to meet the demand.”
Goldstone’s company is one of two in Wyoming offering plans through the government’s site, which allows people toshop for insurance plans and determine whether they qualify for subsidies that help pay for premiums.
“We’re approaching 2,500 members right now,” Goldstone said.

Note that this doesn't include the other Wyoming insurance company participating in the exchanges, BCBSW.

Finally, in California, some major Medicaid expansion numbers: (h/t ArcticStones)

Acting under provisions of the new federal health care law, California's Department of Health Care Services on Tuesday said it transferred more than 630,000 Californians from the state's Low Income Health Program to Medi-Cal, the state's health program for the very poor....Beginning Wednesday, Medi-Cal will immediately begin serving the former LIHP members, a group comprised of uninsured, childless adults ages 19 to 64, and parent and caretaker relatives, all with incomes below 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

...Meanwhile, a department spokesman said 460,000 people also have been found likely eligible for Medi-Cal under the new federal health care law.

Note that I had already listed the number transferred from LIHP to Medi-Cal as 600,000, so that number is "only" 30,000 higher. However, the 460,000 "regular" new Medi-Cal enrollees who signed up via the CoveredCA Exchange are up from the previous number of 181,817.

Given the huge numbers involved in the California update, I need to stress that I don't know how many of these (if any) should be subtracted from the 1.85 Million "unspecified" Medicaid expansion number that I have in a separate cell at the bottom of the spreadsheet. It's possible that these are not additions to the existing data but are only a partial breakdown of that "unspecified" number. If this proves to be the case, the total Medicaid number may have to be returned to it's previous, 4.0 - 4.1 million figure.

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