North Carolina: 305K QHPs??? 3.8x Feb. Rate??? (UPDATED)

Hat Tip To: 
Stevef101

Good gravy. 391,000 people in North Carolina?? They were only at 200,546 as of 3/01. Even if you assume this number includes Medicaid enrollments, that's still only another 55,691 as of 3/01...and NC is not an expansion state. Assuming that 391K includes both...and assuming the same 78/22 split between the two...that still suggests that QHPs have gone up to around 305,000, a 105,115 increase over the end of February, and over 3.8x the February daily rate.

If it doesn't include Medicaid (which seems likely from the wording of the article), then it's a whopping 190,454 increase--a doubling of their 3/01 total, and a near 7x increase over February.

I find either of these rather difficult to believe, so for the moment I'm only entering it into this blog entry. If I can confirm the QHPs as either of these I'll change it tonight or tomorrow.

As the March 31 deadline to get coverage is fast approaching, about 391,000 North Carolinians have signed up for an Obamacare health insurance plan through the government-run online market place, according to federal officials.

Dr. Renard Murray is the Regional Administrator for the Centers for Medicare And Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency running the Health Insurance Marketplace at HealthCare.gov.

UPDATED: Contributor Esther Ferington points out this CNBC article from a week or so ago, which may explain the discrepancy:

With a deadline looming at the end of March to buy coverage or face a penalty, North Carolina trailed only four other states in enrollment. Just over 200,000 people had selected a health insurance policy by March 1, more than half the nearly 391,000 eligible to enroll in a marketplace plan, the report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said.

Although this is rather odd as well, because I have North Carolina down as having 857,000 uninsured who are eligible for subsidies via the HC.gov exchange alone...and that doesn't even count people who already have private insurance in NC who could switch to an Exchange QHP if they want to (they just wouldn't get the subsidy).

Curiouser and curiouser...

If you look at my source for the 857K figure, the Kaiser Family Foundation site, you'll see the following listed for North Carolina:

  • 168K eligible for Medicaid/CHIP
  • 319K screwed over by the Medicaid Gap
  • 513K eligible for QHP tax credits
  • 344K who are uninsured but can afford QHPs but don't get tax credits for it (I added these to the 513K to get the 857K, since technically these folks could enroll in QHPs via the exchanges, there's just no point in them doing so)
  • plus another 249K undocumented immigrants

391K, however, doesn't show up anywhere…weird...

Advertisement