Rhode Island: 31K QHP selections to date w/auto-renewals (13% ahead of last year)

HealthSourceRI hasn't posted any official press release yet, but this story by Rob Borowski in Providence Business News covers all the basics:

PROVIDENCE — HealthSource RI, the state’s health insurance exchange, reports 31,000 people have signed up for health care coverage about a month into the open enrollment period for the 2019 plan year ending Dec. 23, 3,600 enrollments ahead of where they were at this point last year.

Last year at about this time during open enrollment, HealthSource RI had counted about 27,400 people enrolled for health insurance through the exchange, according to HealthSource RI Director Zachary W. Sherman.

Sherman said the agency has seen many people renewing existing coverage either manually or automatically.

“We’re pleased with where we are with sign-ups,” Sherman said.

That optimism comes with the caveat that this year is the first that the agency lacks a significant point it has long relied on in their marketing: the tax penalty for failing to enroll in health insurance. The 2018 Republican tax cut bill removed the penalty for not signing up for health care in 2019.

...More than 80 percent of people who purchase health care coverage from HSRI receive a federal tax credit to help with the costs of insurance.

To my knowledge, there are 5 states which front-load their auto-renewals: Rhode Island, Washington State, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Maryland...in fact, Maryland is deliberately not reporting their enrollment numbers until the end of Open Enrollment for that very reason (they don't want people confused when the number starts out high and then appears to drop as a small number of people actively choose not to renew their policies).