Huh. Deadline extensions were fairly common in the first couple of years of Open Enrollment, but have mostly been phased out more recently. This is a bit unexpected from the DC Health Link:

.@MayorBowser has extended the deadline for individuals & families to enroll in quality affordable health insurance to Monday, February 5th at 11:59 pm. Take advantage of today's extended hours at enrollment centers across the city. Don't delay #GetCoveredDC pic.twitter.com/8R7zq0EzA1

— DC Health Link (@DCHealthLink) January 31, 2018

 

 

Earlier this evening, Donald Trump gave his 90-minute State of the Union speech. He mentioned "Obamacare" exactly one time:

We eliminated an especially cruel tax that fell mostly on Americans making less than $50,000 a year — forcing them to pay tremendous penalties simply because they could not afford government-ordered health plans. We repealed the core of disastrous Obamacare — the individual mandate is now gone.

I'm not going to go try and explain yet again why the ACA's Individual Mandate was included in the law in the first place or why repealing it is such a bad idea; I've embedded my video explainer above to do that.

Instead, I want to make something very clear:

THE REPEAL OF THE ACA's INDIVIDUAL MANDATE DOESN'T ACTUALLY TAKE EFFECT UNTIL YOU FILE YOUR TAXES IN 2020:

If you've been following this site for awhile, you know that for the 2018 Open Enrollment Period, I sort of partnered up with two grassroots healthcare advocacy groups: ACA Consumer Advocacy and the Indivisible ACA Signup Project. We created and disseminated a whole mess of blue-themed Open Enrollment infographics, in both English and Spanish, for all 50 states and the District of Columbia via our websites, social media and even in print via downloadable PDF versions distributed across various public locations.

Anyway, with Open Enrollment officially wrapping up in the final 3 states (well, 2 states + DC) on Wednesday, Jan. 31st, they shared a few metrics, which I'm proud to repost here as well:

Thread: So, about those blue images. We partnered with @2018ACASignup to try to help offset #ACASabotage around enrollment. Kinda impressed with how the whole thing worked. Here are some numbers:

Hmmmmmmm...

Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan Move to Target Health-Care Costs

Three corporate giants are teaming up to combat what billionaire Warren Buffett calls a “hungry tapeworm” feasting on the U.S. economy: health care.

OK, I'm interested...

Amazon.com Inc., Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. said they plan to collaborate on a way to offer health-care services to their U.S. employees more transparently and at a lower cost. The three companies plan to set up a new independent company “that is free from profit-making incentives and constraints,” according to a short statement on Tuesday.

 

If you look at The Graph for the 2018 Open Enrollment Period, you'll notice that in addition to the large green section (Qualified Health Plan (QHP) selections across the 39 Healthcare.Gov states) and the smaller blue section (QHP selections across the 12 State-based exchanges), there's a much smaller burgundy slice at the top labelled "BHPs (MN/NY only). This represents around 820,000 people in Minnesota and New York only who are enrolled in Basic Health Plans, or BHPs.

Last August, I woke up at 3am with excruciating pain in my abdomen on my right side. I tried to "walk it off" (bad cramp?), go to the bathroom (bad gas?), force myself to throw up (low-level food poisoning?) and drank a big glass of water (dehydration?) all to no avail. In utter agony, I finally had my wife wake up our son so she could drive me to the emergency room. I was especially worried because of the location of the pain; I feared I might be suffering from appendicitis, which is, of course, potentially deadly if not treated immediately. Even if it wasn't, it hurt like hell.

About five hours, an IV pain medication drip and a CT scan later, I was sent on my way back home with a less serious diagnosis: A kidney stone. Nasty and painful, but not generally fatal (although they can be if left untreated too long, causing sepsis).

A few weeks later I got the bill: $600. Not a lot of fun to pay of course, but it was much better than the official cost of the ER visit: $6,000. BCBSMI paid the other 90% of the cost.

A huge shout-out to Ken Kelly for calling my attention to this press release which was apparently sent out way back on December 19th???

Vermont wraps up 2018 open enrollment for Vermont Health Connect

News Release — Department of Vermont Health Access
Dec. 19, 2017

Vermonters who Didn’t Complete Plan Selection Urged to Call this Week

WATERBURY, VT – State officials reported that nearly 23,000 Vermonters had confirmed a 2018 health plan and qualified for financial help to make the plan more affordable. Total enrollment in qualified health plans, which typically includes 46,000 small business employees and 11,000 individuals who don’t qualify for financial help, is expected to surpass 80,000. While enrollment will be similar to past years, this year’s earlier deadline means fewer members will experience gaps in coverage. In past years, nearly 2,000 members missed out on January coverage.

As I announced a couple weeks back, I spent most of the past week attending the annual Families USA healthcare conference in Washington, D.C. The conference has been going on for many years, but this is the first time I attended, so it was a big deal for me.

Here's a little background on the organization:

Families USA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer health advocacy organization. It was co-founded in 1981 by attorney Ronald Pollack, its current executive director, and Philippe Villers, the organization’s current president. Families USA is an influential advocate in Washington, D.C., and has played a leading role on virtually every major piece of health care legislation, especially the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), numerous Medicaid measures, and the Medicare Part D plan.

(Update: Ron Pollack stepped down last year; Frederick Isasi is the new Executive Director)

I'm not really able to post a full analysis at the moment, but here's the final officlal OE5 enrollment numbers from Massachusetts:

Total enrollment:

  • 2018 – 263,026 enrolled + 7,662 plans selected = 270,688
  • 2017 – 253,146 enrolled + 10,863 plans selected = 264,009

New enrollments:

  • 2018 – 55,565
  • 2017 – 56, 977

Massachusetts is the 16th state to surpass last year's numbers, and the 11th state-based exchange (if you include Federally-facilitated SBMs).

UPDATE: Hmmm...according ot the official CMS report, Massachusetts actually enrolled 266,664 people into QHPs via their exchange last year, so they're only up 1.5% year over year, but it's still great news, espcially given how low their uninsured rate was to begin with.

Press Release: Governor Cuomo Ensures Medicaid Coverage for DACA Recipients Regardless of Federal Action
If Congress Does Not Act to Protect DACA, New York DACA Recipients will Remain Eligible for State-Funded Medicaid

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy will remain eligible for state-funded Medicaid, regardless of any federal changes to or termination of the program. There are approximately 42,000* DACA recipients in New York, many of whom are at risk of losing their employment-based health insurance if the federal government changes or terminates the program. Under New York law, DACA recipients are considered PRUCOL (Permanently Residing Under Color of Law) and eligible for state-funded Medicaid or CHIP.

Note: This is slightly lower than my own spitball estimate of around 50,000 DACA recipients.

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