Vermont has been pretty much on radio silence for the past two years. They issued fairly regular enrollment data reports in 2014 and 2015, but last year there was nary a peep; the only mid-season enrollment report with Vermont data was the official one released by CMS in early January.
I was, therefore, pretty happy to see a link to their "2018 Open Enrollment Update" posted earlier this afternoon.
Unfortunately...
Open Enrollment Countdown: Just 15 Days Left to Sign up for 2018 Health Coverage
Customer Support Center to Open Next Two Saturdays (9am-1pm)
Nothing official yet, but New York-based Politico healthcare reporter Dan Goldberg just tweeted this out:
@charles_gaba new ny numbers out. 46,000 new enrollees. 13 percent ahead of last year’s pace. 31,500 in essential plan. Numbers through end of November
Unfortunately, a lot of the state-based exchanges have an annoying habit of not posting renewal numbers until after the enrollment period is over (including the biggest one, California), but this is still helpful. Also handy to have the early BHP enrollment numbers.
Thank you for your letter regarding funding for the Navigator program. I appreciate hearing from you on this issue. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires each Health Insurance Exchange (whether Federally-facilitated or state-based) to have a Navigator program to, among other things, help facilitate enrollment of individuals in qualified health plans (QHPs) through the Exchange.
The Washington Health Benefit Exchange today announced that nearly 18,000 new customers have used Washington Healthplanfinder to select 2018 health coverage through the first four weeks of open enrollment. The number of new customers who have signed up since Nov. 1 represents a 43 percent increase over the same period last year.
In addition to the 4,500 new sign-ups received on average each week, Washington Healthplanfinder has experienced an 18 percent increase in visits to the website, with more than 423,000 visitors reviewing their coverage options on www.wahealthplanfinder.org.
Additional data revealing increased consumer interest during open enrollment:
Collins' bill with Nelson would set aside $4.5 billion over two years to help states establish reinsurance programs. Reinsurance directly compensates insurance carriers for their most expensive customers.
To the best of my knowledge, that's...pretty much all it does: $2.25 billion per year for two years, and then...that's it. If there's more to the bill than that, I'll revise this post, but in the meantime, that seems to be the whole bill.
All eyes are on the Godawful Tax Scam Bill this week, which once again lies mostly in the hands of a handful of Republican Senators including the usual suspects like John McCain, Lisa Murkwoski and Susan Collins.
McCain's biggest beef this year has been about "following regular order"; it's the reason he shot down the GOP's #BCRAP bill last summer. Of coruse, current tax bill most certainly isn't following regular order either. Will he stick to his guns on the issue or cave under pressure this time? Who knows?
In week four of Open Enrollment for 2018, 504,181 people selected plans using the HealthCare.gov platform. As in past years, enrollment weeks are measured Sunday through Saturday.
Given the whole Silver Load/Silver Switcharoo craziness, I was mildly surprised to see that the ratio between Bronze, Silver and Gold have barely changed year over year, and in fact Silver has inched upward by a few points...until I remembered that Colorado is among the few states which went with the "broad load" model, spreading the additional CSR cost across all metal levels both on and off the exchange. This makes the similar metal level spread more understandable, but it also makes the 25% enrollment increase even more surprising, since subsidized enrollees will pay pretty much the same (no more or less) than this year, but unsubsidized enrollees are seeing their rates shoot up no matter where they go. As you can see below, the average premiums for unsubsidized enrollees ("NFA" = "Non-Financial Assistance) is 36.6% higher this year than last.
(St. Paul, MN) -- More than 100-thousand Minnesota residents have enrolled in the state's MNSure health insurance purchasing exchange. And about 50-thousand families are expected to get average tax credits of 72-hundred dollars to help pay for their coverage. Credits are higher in southeast and southwest areas. MNSure C-E-O Allison O'Toole says they can make the difference between "unhealthy and healthy" for thousands of people -- and yet, she says too many residents are not taking advantage. The open enrollment for MNSure runs through January 14th -- and O'Toole says that for at least a couple years, the tax credits will remain in place regardless of what happens to Obamacare in Congress.
That's the enitre article...it's dated yesterday (11/24), so I'm assuming the 100K figure was as of Thursday evening (Thanksgiving, Nov. 23rd).
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), part of the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS), provides national leadership in setting and enforcing standards for health insurance that promote fair and reasonable practices to ensure that affordable, quality health coverage is available to all Americans. The center also provides consumers with comprehensive information on coverage options currently available so they may make informed choices on the best health insurance for their family.
...but among other things, they're the folks who actually implement the ACA, including, among other things, HealthCare.Gov (I'm not sure if it's the same team that operates HC.gov or not...probably a lot of overlap between the two?).
Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight
Ensuring the Affordable Care Act Serves the American People
On the one hand, I nailed the Week Three HC.gov number almost perfectly (I projected 2.3 million, the actual number is 2,277,079). Yay, me! Only off by 1%! On the other hand, I seriously underestimated the first two weeks, so I'm not patting myself on the back too much. It's an insane year with too many unknowns for me to do much more than throw darts at the board. Still, I'll take credit where I can.
In addition, CMS has also started breaking the numbers out by state, which helps analysts look for trends and cause/effect relationships, so let's jump in!
Press release from the Massachusetts Health Connector...
BOSTON – November 20, 2017 – With a stable system and user process complemented by a proactive outreach and education effort, the Massachusetts Health Connector has seen members and new applicants more active in the first two weeks of Open Enrollment compared to last year.
Through Nov. 15, plans selected and enrollments are more than 40 percent higher than last year at the same time, new program determinations for Health Connector are up nearly 70 percent, and plans selected and enrollments by new members are up more than 15 percent.
“It is encouraging to see people hearing our message to shop for new coverage, and taking early advantage of Open Enrollment and finding the plan that best fits their needs for the new year,” said Louis Gutierrez, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Connector. “We hope all of our current members take time to review their coverage for next year, and people who don’t currently have health insurance sign up so they have the health and financial security that comes with having coverage next year.”
Not much of an update, but good to see a hard number officially posted at AccessHealthCT (I assume they'll be updating this regularly from the looks of it):
Total Enrollments (active renewal, passive renewal, new): 130,556 (up 3% vs. last year)
Active Enrollments (renewals + new): 29,478 (up 98% over last year)
New Enrollments: 10,900 (up 10% over last year)
Applications: 275,790 (up 13% over last year)
Mobile App Visitors: 74,744 (up 110% over last year)
OK, the MD exchange breaks out their numbers slightly differently than I do, but they've provided the numbers necessary to reformat. Like a few other states, they're "front-loading" their auto-renewals, giving the following:
18,578 Active Renewals
101,078 Auto-Renewals
10,900 NEW Enrollees
130,556 TOTAL Enrollments
For clarification: When the MD exchange says that 130,556 is "3% higher than last year", they're talking about at this point in time. Subtract 3% and you get roughly 126.7K as of 11/17/16. Maryland's total enrollment by the end of the 2017 Open Enrollment Period was 157,832.
