Vermont: Up to 92% of QHPs PAID (up 5,800 since 4/30)

Finally, a solid update out of Vermont; thanks to Morgan True of VT Digger for pointing me towards the most recent Vermont Health Connect report as of just a week or so ago:

There's a lot going on in the table above. For one thing, this demonstrates, again, how stupid it was to hyperventilate about "How many have PAID???" back in February or March, when a good 40% or more of the people who would eventually enroll wouldn't even have their policies kick in for weeks or even months yet. Note that of those whose policies started between January 1 - May 1st, over 95% have paid their first premiums by now:

• Jan - May Start: 95% Paid
• June Start: 83% Paid
• July Start: 49% Paid
• August Start: 35% Paid

Secondly, while the total number of enrollees currently on the books has actually dropped since 4/19 (from 38,048 down to 35,662), that appears to be a combination of purging of duplicate entries and/or people who dropped their coverage after the first month, since the paid enrollee figure has gone up substantially, from 27.2K as of April 30 to 33K as of July 22, for an overall payment rate of as high as 92%...or, in a worst-case scenario, as low as 87% if you divide it into the HHS Dept's. official 4/19 number of 38,048.

Again, right around 90% if you split the difference. In any event, VT's paid QHP total has gone up by 5,800 since the end of April.

Meanwhile, the SHOP total has only gone up slightly, from 33,614 to 33,696.

Finally, Medicaid expansion enrollment is a bit confusing because the 166,078 number above includes everyone on Medicaid/CHIP in Vermont. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (p. 13), Vermont's total Medicaid/CHIP enrollment as of June 2012 was around 142,000 people, including the 33.5K in their VHAP/etc. who were also transferred over to Medicaid "proper" due to the ACA expansion provision. Since the grand total is now 166K (also including those transferees), the breakdown appears to be roughly:

• 108.5K: Already in Medicaid pre-ACA
• 33.5K: Transferred from VHAP/CHAP due to ACA expansion
• 22K: "True" ACA expansion
• 2K: Woodworker additions