Access Health CT Awarded $1.1M Grant From The Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services
Grant funding supports the implementation of the American Rescue Plan Act in Connecticut and several technology upgrades improving the consumer experience
HARTFORD, Conn. (September 20, 2021)—Access Health CT (AHCT) announced today it was recently awarded $1.1 million of grant funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The grant will be used to financially support the implementation of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) helping to make health insurance more affordable for Connecticut residents, along with technology modernization projects that will enhance consumer experiences within the online customer portal. The grant funding was made possible through the ARPA.
The Connecticut Insurance Department has posted the initial proposed health insurance rate filings for the 2022 individual and small group markets. There are 15 filings made by 11 health insurers for plans that currently cover approximately 222,700 people.
Anthem and ConnectiCare Benefits Inc. (CBI) have filed rates for both individual and small group plans that will be marketed through Access Health CT, the state-sponsored health insurance exchange. ConnectiCare Insurance Company, Inc. will begin participating on the exchange in the individual market effective 1/1/2022.
Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company began participating in the small group market 7/1/2021.
The 2022 rate proposals for the individual and small group market are on average higher than last year:
The proposed average individual rate request is an 8.6 percent increase, compared to 6.3 percent in 2021 and ranges from 5.1 percent to 12.3 percent.
The Access Health CT American Rescue Plan Act Special Enrollment Period has saved Connecticut residents more than $4.5 million in health insurance costs since May 1
Connecticut residents have one month left to enroll.
More than 33,000 enrollees have received new financial help, saving approximately $4.5 million dollars in total.
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) made health insurance coverage more affordable for many Connecticut residents by virtually eliminating or vastly reducing monthly payments (premiums) for people with low and moderate incomes.
HARTFORD, Conn. (July 15, 2021) — Access Health CT (AHCT), Connecticut’s official health insurance marketplace, is reminding Connecticut residents they have one month left to enroll in health insurance coverage during the American Rescue Plan Act Special Enrollment Period ending August 15.
I've once again relaunched my project from last fall to track Medicaid enrollment (both standard and expansion alike) on a monthly basis for every state dating back to the ACA being signed into law.
For the various enrollment data, I'm using data from Medicaid.gov's Medicaid Enrollment Data Collected Through MBES reports. Unfortunately, they've only published enrollment data through December 2020. In some states I've been able to get more recent enrollment data from state websites and other sources.
Connecticut total Medicaid enrollment (including ACA expansion) hovered between 900K - 1.0 million prior to the COVID pandemic hiatting last February/March.
Unlike most states which kept their 2021 COVID Special Enrollment Period running continuously while they transitioned to the newly-expanded ACA subsidies, Access Health CT took a 2-week break in order to retool their website for the enhanced financial assistance.
Now that I've developed a standardized format/layout & methodology for tracking both state- and county-level COVID vaccination levels by partisan lean (which can also be easily applied to other variables like education level, median income, population density, ethnicity, etc), I've started moving beyond my home state of Michigan.
As I noted recently, I've relaunched my project from last fall to track Medicaid enrollment (both standard and expansion alike) on a monthly basis for every state dating back to the ACA being signed into law.
Access Health CT Announces A Special Enrollment Period Allowing New and Existing Customers To Receive Significantly Greater Financial Help At Virtually Every Income Level
Under the American Rescue Plan, new and existing customers who buy health insurance through the Marketplace will become eligible to receive increased financial help to reduce their monthly payments
Another quick Connecticut update...I've received the following Special Enrollment Period (SEP) QHP selection numbers for the past three years, and they're pretty telling:
SEP Enrollment for the 2/15 – 4/15 Timeframe:
2019 - 1,817
2020 - 4,250
2021 - 5,890
That averages out to:
2019: 30/day
2020: 70/day (2020 was a leap year)
2021: 98/day
2020 isn't really a good comparison year, since COVID had already started ravaging the U.S. by mid-March and Connecticut also launched a COVID SEP from March 18th - April 17th last year as well. The spring of 2019, however, didn't have anything special going on, so that's a perfect pre-COVID comparison year: The 2021 COVID SEP racked up 3.26x as many new enrollees as you'd typically expect to during the off-season for the same time period.
