Charles Gaba's blog

Last year, Minnesota's ACA exchange, MNsure, reported the following QHP selections numbers for the first two weeks of Open Enrollment (technically the first 13 days):

BY THE NUMBERS—

  • Private health plan sign ups—97,944
  • Call volume—14,335
  • Average speed of answer—7 seconds
  • Plan comparison sessions—49,064

The sign-ups reported include new consumers, renewing consumers who have come back and shopped for a new plan for 2019, and renewing consumers who are continuing their previous plan for 2019.

Of those, around 2,400 were new enrollees; the other 95.5K were renewals of existing enrollees (either active or auto-renewals).

For 2020, this just came in from MNsure:

Strong Interest During MNsure's First 10 days; Open Enrollment Update = November 13, 2019

This Just In from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...

Federal Health Insurance Exchange Weekly Enrollment Snapshot: Week 2: Week 2, Nov 3-9, 2019

In week two of the 2020 Open Enrollment, 754,967 people selected plans using the HealthCare.gov platform. As in past years, enrollment weeks are measured Sunday through Saturday. Consequently, the cumulative totals reported in this snapshot reflect one fewer day than last year.

Every week during Open Enrollment, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will release enrollment snapshots for the HealthCare.gov platform, which is used by the Federally-facilitated Exchange and some State-based Exchanges. These snapshots provide point-in-time estimates of weekly plan selections, call center activity, and visits to HealthCare.gov or CuidadoDeSalud.gov.

The final number of plan selections associated with enrollment activity during a reporting period may change due to plan modifications or cancellations. In addition, the weekly snapshot only reports new plan selections and active plan renewals and does not report the number of consumers who have paid premiums to effectuate their enrollment.

I know I haven't posted much the past few days; part of this is due to dealing with the snowstorm which hit us here in the midwest (snow day for my kid, broken snowblower, etc.), while part was due to prepping for a healthcare town hall event I participated in last evening.

The town hall was centered on healthcare at the county level. Oakland County, Michigan, has over 1.25 million residents, and after decades of solid Republican control, a combination of last year's "blue wave" election plus the death of longtime GOP County Executive L. Brooks Patterson over the summer has resulted in Democrats taking control of both the executive and legislative branches of county government for the first time in forever.

OK, this is a bit confusing. Over the past few years, more and more of the state-based exchanges have shifted from waiting until the end of Open Enrollment to officially report auto-renewals of existing enrollees...to going ahead and auto-renewing everyone up front, and then subtracting those current enrollees who actively cancel their renewals.

This has caused a bit of confusion, since the exchanges don't always make it clear who's being counted and when.

Case in point: Access Health CT, Connecticut's ACA exchange. Last year they reported 12,777 enrollees during the first two weeks of Open Enrollment...and also noted that there were another 85,000 existing enrollees who hadn't yet actively renewed their policies as of 11/18.

This year, their press release page states the following:

2020 Open Enrollment Results (Stats will be available starting Friday November 8, 2019 by 5pm EST)

Qualified Health Plans (QHP):

Over the past few months, I've written overviews of the preferred Big Healthcare Reform proposals from several of the Democratic Presidential candidates:

Over the past few months, I've written overviews of the preferred Big Healthcare Reform proposals from several of the Democratic Presidential candidates:

Over the past few months, I've written overviews of the preferred Big Healthcare Reform proposals from several of the Democratic Presidential candidates:

A few weeks ago I noted the following press release from Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, just ahead of the critical state legislative elections:

It took me a couple of days to post this, but it's an important development, especially on the cusp of the Virginia legislative election next month which could flip both the state House and Senate to the Democrats; thanks to Esther Ferington for the heads up:

Governor Northam Signs Executive Directive to Ensure Access to Affordable, Quality Health Care Coverage for All Virginians

“Health coverage should be both meaningful and affordable, but unfortunately, policies from Washington threaten to increase the number of families who are uninsured or underinsured,” said Governor Northam. “It’s more important than ever that we identify and implement policies at the state level that control costs and ensure that Virginians can afford to buy health insurance that covers their health care needs.”

Disclosure: HealthSherpa has a banner ad on this site...for the following reasons:

  • Their website only sells ACA-compliant plans.
  • They display all of them equally (as opposed to hiding or favoring one over another).
  • They only sell them on-exchange (if you're eligible for ACA subsidies you get them through HS's site as well)
  • They make it easy to enroll fro Medicaid/CHIP if the enrollee isn't eligible for a subsidized ACA policy.

It's really, really important to me to make the above very clear, for the following reasons as laid out by Tara Straw of the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities:

This was posted by NJ Governor Phil Murphy a week ago but it's still noteworthy, especially considering that NJ is in the process of splitting off from HC.gov onto their own full ACA exchange next year as Nevada just did:

Governor Murphy and New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance Kick Off ACA Open Enrollment Period

Governor Announces Strengthened ACA Efforts, including $3.1 Million to Support Outreach and Enrollment Efforts and Bolstered Get Covered NJ Awareness Campaign

TRENTON – Governor Phil Murphy, joined by Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI) Commissioner Marlene Caride and enrollment assisters from across the state, today announced Navigator grant awards totaling $1.1 million to provide enrollment assistance to residents shopping for health coverage during the six-week open enrollment window. DOBI plans to release approximately $500,000 more in grants in the coming days.

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