We released our End of Open Enrollment report this week, our most detailed look at the impact we are having across Colorado. This year, you will see that more of our customers are receiving help through the Advance Premium Tax Credit – 69 percent, compared to 61 percent last year – and the average level of monthly tax credit help climbed to $505 from $369 last year.
Not surprising...the 34% average rate increases (about 6 points of which is due specifically to CSR reimbursement payments being cut off...much lower than most states) meant that a lot more people qualified for tax credits in the first place, and of course the amount of credits went up accordingly...a bit more, actually (37% on average).
Consumer Choice Continues to be a Hallmark of the Marketplace
ALBANY, N.Y. (March 14, 2018) -- NY State of Health, the state’s official health plan Marketplace, today released data showing 2018 health plan enrollment by insurer. Statewide, 12 health insurers offer Qualified Health Plans (QHP) to individuals and 15 health insurers offer coverage to Essential Plan (EP) enrollees through the Marketplace. Ten health insurers participate in all individual market programs offered through NY State of Health allowing consumers a smooth transition if their program eligibility changes. Throughout the 2018 Open Enrollment Period, most consumers had a choice of at least four health insurer options in every county of the State.
I just did a light analysis of how many people would be helped or hurt by CSR funding in 2019 in Rhode Island, and concluded that at least 28% of exchange enrollees would see their premiums increase if CSR funding was restored, while only perhaps 2-3% would see their premiums drop.
So there you have the enrollment results of full-bore on-exchange silver-loading of CSR costs in one state. In all, 49,993 on-exchange enrollees with incomes up to 400% FPL chose plans other than silver. About 48,000 of them were subsidized. That's 31.2% of all enrollees, within striking distance of Aron-Dine's upper bound of 36% for all marketplace enrollees.
HealthSource RI, Rhode Island's ACA exchange, released preliminary 2018 Open Enrollment data awhile ago, but this morning they released their final, official demographic data breakout, and there's a lot going on here:
HealthSource RI sees 5% enrollment increase and nation leading lowest benchmark plan cost
State-based marketplace sees rise in enrollment of “young invincibles”
Over the past few weeks,I've posted partial 2018 Open Enrollment Period demographic data from Connecticut, Idaho, Maryland, New York and Washington State. Still missing are final wrap-up reports from the other 7 state-based exchanges...as well as The Big One: The official report from the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE).
The 2014 ASPE report was released on May 1st, 2014...just 17 days after the first, tumultuous 2014 Open Enrollment Period ended (only 12 days, really, since the report actually ran through April 19th, 2014 even though the "overtime" period technically ended on April 15th).
The cumulative enrollment numbers are also important: During the entire off-season (from 2/01/17 - 12/31/17), 41,387 people selected QHPs via Special Enrollment Periods (SEPs), or roughly 124 per day. Of course, technically speaking the last day of SEP enrollment for 2017 should have been 11/15/17 (for coverage starting December 1st), but it looks like a few hundred people slipped in after that.
Colorado's SHOP enrollment, meanwhile, hovered right around the 3,000 person mark all year.
ALBANY, N.Y. (February 27, 2018) -- NY State of Health, the state’s official health plan Marketplace, today released county-level enrollment data as of January 31, 2018, showing that overall enrollment increased in each of New York’s 62 counties. Total enrollment in the Marketplace is now over 4.3 million people, reflecting an increase of 700,000 people (19 percent) from 2017. Many upstate counties saw significant enrollment gains in the last year.
“Consumers from Chautauqua to Suffolk and every county in between are shopping for health plans through the Marketplace,” said NY State of Health Executive Director, Donna Frescatore. “With affordable premiums and a robust choice of plans, NY State of Health is where New Yorkers go to get covered.”
UPDATE: (sigh) OK, it looks like the final number for the District of Columbia was slightly too low; I've received official notice from the DC exchange that it was actually 22,584, 115 enrollments higher than the NASHP report pegged it at. The Graph and spreadsheet below have both been updated...
OK, here it is...
This morning Covered California issued their final 2018 ACA Open Enrollment numbers. I was a bit disappointed to discover that instead of beating out last year slightly, they ended up coming about 2.3% short year over year...but there's a very good reason for that: Like Maryland, California not only utilized the full "Silver Switcharoo" strategy with individual market premiums, they actively encouraged current UNSUBSIDIZED on-exchange Silver enrollees to switch to off-exchange Silver plans instead.
Note: This is more of a placeholder for the moment; it'll be updated as soon as the numbers are available.
At around 10:30am this morning, Covered California will be announcing their final, official 2018 ACA Open Enrollment Period numbers, along with other various demographic info.
Keep in mind that California is second only to Florida in terms of ACA exchange enrollees, with around 13% of the national total each year, so this is a big deal.
Last year Covered CA's 1/31 total hit 1,556,676 (or just under 15,000 enrollees higher). In 2016 they had their all-time high of 1,575,340, so they'd have to have tacked on about 34,000 more over the final 10 days of Open Enrollment this year in order to beat their record.
Maryland was originally one of 3 state-based exchanges which stuck to the "official" half-length, December 15th Open Enrollment Period deadline this time around. However, with just 2 days to go before the original deadline, the MD Health Connection announced that they had decided to bump out their deadline by an extra week after all, through December 22nd.
