Colorado: 161K QHPs thru Jan. 3rd; set to beat last year w/12 days left to #GetCovered

This just in from Connect for Health Colorado...

Rural Counties Lead Connect for Health Colorado® 2019 Health Coverage Sign Ups; Many Have Already Passed 2018 Totals

DENVER – Rural counties are leading the way in Connect for Health Colorado® sign ups as the state health insurance marketplace heads to the last week of the 2019 Open Enrollment period.

Overall, 2019 health plan selections through Connect for Health Colorado are running about 3 percent ahead of the comparable period a year ago but many rural counties have already exceeded the number of plan selections made in the entire two-and-a-half-month Open Enrollment period in 2018.

By January 3, 2019, 30 of the state’s 64 counties had matched or exceeded the number of plan selections made during all of last year’s Open Enrollment. This year’s Open Enrollment runs through January 15.

Among those 30 leading counties, only two – El Paso County at 102 percent and Adams County at 101 percent of the 2018 total -- are among the 10 urban Front Range counties. Nine rural counties were at 110 percent or more of the 2018 Open Enrollment figure as of January 3. They are: Kiowa, San Juan, Custer, Bent, Rio Grande, Las Animas, Mineral, Huerfano and Cheyenne.

“We know that our customers in rural counties face some of the highest costs and we are glad to see the number of residents of those areas who are able to protect their health and family finances by working with us,” said Connect for Health Colorado CEO Kevin Patterson. “Coloradans in every county have only one more week to buy their own health insurance. I urge them to go to Connectforhealthco.com now to see the savings opportunity available before it’s too late.

“This is the time for the many workers whose employers aren’t able to provide health insurance to act now to get their coverage in place for 2019. We are here to help.”

After January 15, individuals and families can buy coverage on their own only if they experience a life change event such as such as marriage, divorce, having a child, losing employer-sponsored insurance, or moving to Colorado.

For purposes of this analysis, “urban counties” refers to the 10 counties classified as urban by the Colorado Rural Development Council and “rural counties” refers to the 54 that organization classified as “rural” or “ag-urban.”

They include a pretty nifty county-level breakout which distinguishes between Rural and Urban counties, but for some reason failed to include statewide total numbers at the bottom. I went ahead and added up all the counties to get a statewide total of 161,052 QHP selections through Jan. 3rd.

This is just 712 enrollees shy of last year's 161,764...and if C4HCO manages to break that, they'll join Massachusetts in increasing their QHP selection total for five years straight.