The numbers are small, but the percentages are impressive: Delaware's 3/31 tally is in:
DOVER – Delaware ended its first enrollment period for the nation's new Obamacare health plans with 11,335 people enrolled – about 3,000 more than federal goals for the state.
Another 3,411 people gained coverage through the state's expanded Medicaid coverage, which extended eligibility to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
Excellent find by contributor deaconblues; HighMark is one of the few major insurance companies which has been very open about their off-exchange QHP enrollments. This press release contains some great updates for 3 different states, including a total exchange QHP update for West Virginia (since HighMark is the only insurance company operating on the exchange there anyway):
Highmark's total enrollment* for individuals who have purchased Affordable Care Act-compliant plans both on the federal marketplace exchange and through Highmark directly:
Pennsylvania: 148,003 total with 104,324 on-exchange and 43,679 off-exchange
West Virginia: 20,131 total with 14,839 on-exchange and 5,292 off-exchange
Delaware: 13,010 total with 9,187 on-exchange and 3,823 off-exchange
Through both on- and off-exchange purchases, Highmark had a noteworthy percentage of new members, which are likely those who were previously uninsured or had insurance with a competitor.
Pennsylvania: 53 percent new members
West Virginia: 63 percent new members
Delaware: 67 percent new members
The numbers are tiny, but what the hell...DE was at 6,538 as of 3/01, so this is at least 1,463 higher...if it really is only 8,001, that's actually down 13% from the February rate, which I find hard to believe, but the numbers are so small it doesn't matter much anyway:
State officials initially had hoped to enroll 35,000 of the roughly 90,000 uninsured Delawareans for coverage under the ACA, but federal officials set a much lower target last fall of 8,000 enrollments, a benchmark that state officials say has been exceeded.
A beautiful find by new contributor Uncle Toby: Highmark Inc., a major insurer which serves Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware, just did exactly what I've been wanting every insurer to do: They officially announced not just their off-exchange enrollments, but specified the exact date that these run through and the fact that they're all 100% ACA compliant.
As a bonus, they've included specific state-by-state breakdowns as well as a comparison against their on-exchange enrollments. 32% of PA's, 27% of WV's and 29% of Delaware's QHP enrollees to date have been off-exchange. This proves exactly what I've been saying: There are absolutely several million (at a minimum) direct QHPs out there which simply haven't been documented publicly yet.
UPDATE: On the down side, I was off by 4% this time around.
On the up side, I UNDERESTIMATED:
Actual Feb. enrollments: 942,833, for a total of 4,242,325 thru 3/01/14.
Sarah Kliff at Vox just announced that the February HHS report is expected to be released today at around 4:00pm. A few items in anticipation of that:
As I've noted several times, I'm projecting the report to total around 902,000 exchange-based private QHP enrollments for the month of February (technically 2/02 - 3/01)
If accurate, this would bring the cumulative total of exchange-based private QHP enrollments to 4.202 million (from 10/1/13 - 3/01/14)
From the data I have, the average daily enrollment rate in February was almost identical to that of January, which had about 1.146 million QHP enrollments. HOWEVER, the January report included five weeks of data (12/28 - 2/01), while the February report will only include four weeks (2/02 - 3/01). Therefore, even at the same daily average, it'll be about 20% lower no matter what.
Don't be surprised if Peter Lee of CoveredCA decides to steal some thunder by announcing that California has enrolled 1,000,000 QHPs all by itself either today or tomorrow. However, that would include the past 10 days, while the HHS number will only run thru 3/01.
If you want to get REALLY specific, call it 902,800 and 4,202,292.
I've been dead-on target 6 times in a row without hyping up my projections beforehand. This time I am hyping myself up beforehand, so I'll probably be way off...but as long as I've UNDERestimated the tally, I'll be perfectly fine with that...
The report will be released in about 5 minutes, but my kid gets home from school in about 10, so it'll be a good 20 minutes before I can really post anything. Feel free to follow Sarah Kliff of Vox in the meantime!
At a press conference today, the Secretary of the DHSS announced that Delaware's private QHP enrollments went up 38% in February while Medicaid expansion went up 55%, to 6,994 and 2,168 respectively. Not much in sheer numbers but a nice bump for a small state. This brings Delaware up to 58% of their reasonable 1st year QHP goal of 12,000.
Sec Landgraf says 6,994 Delawareans have enrolled in the marketplace through Feb. 28, up 38% from last month's report. #choosehealthDE
OK, don't let the huge percentages fool you...the actual number of Private QHPs only went up from 3,273 to 5,062, and exchange-based Medicaid enrollments increased from 1,058 to 1,396.
Not sure where the article is getting it's "24%" and "34%" numbers, however. 5,062 is 54.6% higher than 3,273, and the combined total of 6,458 is 49.1% higher than 4,331.
Enrollment in new Obamacare insurance plans increased by about 24 percent in the last month, Delaware Secretary of Health and Social Services Rita Landgraf told the Delaware Health Care Commission this morning....
Since enrollment started Oct. 1, 5,062 people enrolled in plans through the insurance marketplace, Landgraf said. Another 1,396 gained coverage in Medicaid, for those whose income is up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level....In all, 6,458 people have new coverage, up 34 percent from the January report.
It looks like the exchanges are starting to become more sensitive to the distinction between paid and unpaid enrollments; Delaware is the 5th state exchange to start separating these numbers out (or perhaps the media is just starting to do so based on the numbers released). In any event, depending on how you look at it, Delaware's private enrollments have gone up either 44% or 400% since the 793 enrolled as of December 12, and Medicaid enrollees have gone up 3.7x the 1,822 that it stood at as of 11/30.
Delaware officials reported Thursday that 1,145 people have enrolled in the state’s new health insurance exchange and paid their first premiums under the federal health care reform law.
The 1,145 paid enrollees are among 3,183 people who, as of Jan. 3, had chosen one of the health care plans offered on the exchange, suggesting that most of those who have chosen plans have not yet paid for coverage.
A beautiful find by new contributor Uncle Toby: Highmark Inc., a major insurer which serves Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware, just did exactly what I've been wanting every insurer to do: They officially announced not just their off-exchange enrollments, but specified the exact date that these run through and the fact that they're all 100% ACA compliant.
At a press conference today, the Secretary of the DHSS announced that Delaware's private QHP enrollments went up 38% in February while Medicaid expansion went up 55%, to 6,994 and 2,168 respectively. Not much in sheer numbers but a nice bump for a small state. This brings Delaware up to 58% of their reasonable 1st year QHP goal of 12,000.
