With its open-enrollment period ending on Feb. 9, Covered California announced that a record number of Californians have selected health plans for 2024.
As of Jan. 31, there are 1,784,653 Californians who have chosen a health plan through Covered California for 2024, with 306,382 new enrollees and 1,478,271 renewing their coverage. The total surpasses the previous high set in 2022.
The increased federal subsidies through the Inflation Reduction Act paired with California’s new cost-sharing reduction program for 2024 helped create the highest number of new sign-ups during an open-enrollment period since 2020. Consumers have until midnight on Feb. 9 to enroll in coverage that would be effective as of Feb. 1.
Covered California announced today that it will give consumers until Feb. 9 to sign up for coverage in 2024.
“We’ve seen record-breaking enrollment nationally, and Covered California is surging with heightened demand,” said Covered California Executive Director Jessica Altman. “We want any Californian who needs health insurance to have the opportunity to get covered for the rest of 2024, and extending the open-enrollment period will ensure they have the time they need.”
In addition to the increased demand, consumers looking to enroll in recent days may have encountered challenges reaching Covered California representatives over the phone, and many this week have experienced longer than expected wait times. This was due in part to a disruption to Covered California’s service center, which was temporarily taken offline in immediate response to a cybersecurity incident affecting a third-party vendor that supports its phone lines.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Heading into the final week of open enrollment, Covered California has continued to see signups surge.As of Jan. 20, over 243,000 Californians have newly enrolled in coverage for 2024, a 13 percent increase over the same period last year. Over 1.5 million Covered California enrollees have renewed their coverage.
There is still time for uninsured Californians to sign up for coverage through Covered California, but only until Jan. 31.
“If you don’t have health insurance for yourself or your family, now is the time to enroll,” said Covered California Executive Director Jessica Altman. “With enhanced federal subsidies and a new state program to lower out-of-pocket costs, there has never been more help available to make quality health insurance more affordable and more attainable.”
On Jan. 1, immigrants may qualify for Medi-Cal regardless of legal status
...Milagro and her husband are among the more than 700,000 immigrants ages 26-49 expected to newly qualify for full health insurance come Jan. 1. That’s when California takes the final step in opening up Medi-Cal, the state’s health care program for low-income residents, to everyone who meets eligibility requirements, regardless of their immigration status.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With a key deadline coming up on Dec. 31, Covered California announced that 161,670 people have signed up for 2024 coverage as of Dec. 23 during this open enrollment, marking an 18 percent increase over the same period last year and the highest during this same period in four years.
Another 1,571,559 Californians have renewed their coverage so far.
That's 1,733,229 QHP selections to date. By comparison, last year the combined new+renewal enrollment in CA was 1,676,616 through 12/24, meaning the 2024 Open Enrollment Period is actually running more like 5.3% higher than last year on a per day basis:
Good grief. I have no idea how I missed this legislation. I had read about and even written about it several times over the past several years, but I sort of lost track of it since the COVID pandemic hit.
Back in 2016, California passed a bill which extened eligibility for Medi-Cal (California's brand name for Medicaid) to around 170,000 undocumented children statewide...although this ultimately ended up resulting in around 250,000 children being added to the roles.
Covered California’s Health Plans and Rates for 2024: More Affordability Support and Consumer Choices Will Shield Many From Rate Increase
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Covered California announced its health plans and rates for the 2024 coverage year with apreliminary weighted average rate increase of 9.6 percent.
The rate change can be attributed to many factors, including a continued rise in health care utilization following the pandemic, increases in pharmacy costs, and inflationary pressures in the health care industry, such as the rising cost of care, labor shortages and salary and wage increases.
Los Angeles, Calif. — Covered California kicked off its 2024 open-enrollment period at the iconic Los Angeles State Historic Park and Roundhouse Bridge, a public space that serves some of the most vulnerable communities in the state, with roots that connect back to the early history of the city and region…
Covered California Executive Director Jessica Altman was joined by California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly and Assemblymember Miguel Santiago of California’s 54th district to launch open enrollment. They highlighted how record financial help — through enhanced federal premium support and a new program in California that will reduce out-of-pocket costs for over 650,000 consumers — is bridging the gap between uninsured Californians and access to affordable coverage and quality care.
In July, Covered California announced the preliminary weighted average 2024 premium rate changes for the ACA individual market. They still haven't released the final/approved rates, or the small group market average rate changes, but today they released the final rate changes for standalone dental plans:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Covered California announced that the statewide weighted average rate change for dental coverage in 2024 will be 4.31 percent. The rate increase is the first since 2020 and continues a trend of holding costs steady for consumers.
A few weeks ago I noted that, thanks to California Governor Gavin Newsom and the Democratically-controlled state legislature finally reaching a compromise agreement on how to allocate ~$330 million/year in revenue generated by the state's individual mandate penalty, around $83 million will be utilized to dramatically reduce out of pocket expenses for hundreds of thousands of ACA exchange enrollees.
