So, it's over, right? Well...not quite. The 2019 ACA Open Enrollment Period officially ended last night...but only in 43 states. In the remaining seven (+DC), Open Enrollment hasn't ended yet. 2019 ACA Open Enrollment is still ongoing for nearly 10% of the population!
In Massachusetts, open enrollment runs through Jan. 23rd, 2019 for coverage starting February 1st
In the District of Columbia and New York, open enrollment runs through Jan. 31st for coverage starting March 1st
For four years now, I've been meticulously tracking and analyzing the annual premium rate change filings on the individual market (and usually the small group market) for pretty much every insurance carrier in every state, then consolidating all of that data into tables which break out the weighted average premium increases (or decreases, in some cases) on a state-by-state and national basis. Each year I've been proven to be pretty damned accurate:
It's been pretty obvious for the past two years that the states which fully control their own ACA exchanges (including their own marketing and outreach budgets and their own exchange website platform) seem to be outperforming the states hosted by the federal exchange, HealthCare.Gov, in terms of open enrollment numbers year after year.
However, this can be a bit tricky to compare because some of the states have shifted back and forth...four states which ran their own platform for the first one to three years (Hawaii, Kentucky, Nevada and Oregon) moved home to the mothership in later years, while one state (Idaho) did the reverse--they stuck with HC.gov for 2014 but then broke off onto their own platform after that.
Yeesh...when it rains, it pours! Right on top of updated and/or final 2019 Open Enrollment numbers 41 states (Idaho, Rhode Island and the 39 states hosted by HealthCare.Gov) comes yet another updated tally from Massachusetts:
As of today:
274,317 enrollments for January
2,997 enrollments for February or March
3,763 plans selected (1st premium not paid but not due yet)
281,077 total
Retention rate is 91 percent, up 2.6 percent from last year.
The total is only 252 higher than their last update as of December 17th, but that's not surprising considering that we had both Christmas and New Year's in between. Again, MA has managed to improve their enrollment number every year for 5 years straight, an impressive feat indeed!
Again, Massachusetts' total from last year was 267,260 QHP selections, which means they're now 5.2% ahead of last year's final number...with 3 weeks left to go!
As I warned back on December 19th when CMS released the Week 7 HealthCare.Gov Enrollment Snapshot Report, the final, official enrollment tally for the 2019 Open Enrollment Period was almost certain to end up slightly lower than the Week 7 cumulative numbers indicated. There are several reasons for this: Some people who were auto-renewed contact HC.gov to cancel their 2019 renewals, while others had their enrollments involuntarily denied or otherwise cancelled due to problems with verifying their identity, address or legal residency status.
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Rhode Islanders have just a few hours left to obtain health insurance through the state.
The deadline to sign up for and renew coverage for 2019 is Monday, Dec. 31.
The state's health insurance marketplace, HealthSource RI, plans to keep its call and walk-in center open until 7 p.m. Monday.
The center is located at 401 Wampanoag Trail in East Providence and the hotline is 1-855-840-4774.
Rhode Islanders have until midnight Monday to sign up for coverage online through HealthSource RI's website.
"Enrollment is up from last year, which we're very excited about, so that to us is a sign that the ACA is working in Rhode Island, and everybody is understanding the value of having health coverage," HealthSource RI COO Meg Ivatts said.
Now that I've brought everyone up to speed about my disappearing act, it's time to delve back into the ACA & healthcare developments of the past few weeks. There've been quite a few to talk about, but for now I'll just focus on updating the OE6 enrollment books a bit...starting with one of the two states which, until now, hasn't provided any 2019 enrollment data: Idaho.
As I noted a few weeks ago, this is the first time I've gone without posting any updates to the site for more than a few days since I launched this project over five years ago. Obviously a tremendous amount has happened since I went off the grid--some good, some bad--and there's no way I can catch up with all of it, but I'll try and recap a few of the developments most relevant to the ACASignups.net readership in my next post.
Before that, though, I'm sure all of you (well, some of you...ok, perhaps one or two of you?) are wondering where I was, so lemme start with that.
Unlike Islam and Mecca, there's no specific commandment under Jewish law which states that every Jew must visit Israel at least once in their lifetimes. Most Jews, however, do want to visit Israel at least once, and it's something which has been on my Bucket List since I was a kid. The day my wife and I found out she was pregnant, we decided right then and there that we were going to take our son on a family trip to Israel for his Bar Mitzvah.
SNAP recipients and parents of children with Medicaid coverage can use three-question application until January 4
The new coverage is available to men and women ages 19 through 64 who are not eligible for Medicare and who meet income requirements, which vary by family size. For example, a single adult with an annual income at or below $16,754 may be eligible for coverage. An adult in a three-person family with a total household annual income at or below $28,677 may be eligible.
SNAP recipients and parents whose children are currently receiving Medicaid coverage have the opportunity to use a short-form application to sign up if they do so by January 4, 2019. These individuals were notified by letter earlier this fall, and a follow-up postcard was recently mailed to potentially eligible adults in these categories.
