Kentucky: Gov. Beshear updates Kynect total: 521K QHPs + Medicaid combined
Mitch McConnell just had 71,000 more headaches dumped on him.
OK, I can't embed the video and even the link above just goes to the general Hardball video archive page, but on MSNBC's Hardball this evening, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear gave an updated total for ACA enrollments via the Kynect exchange: 521,000 Kentuckians. The exact quote, about 2 minutes into the segment:
“The numbers speak for themselves...from the time we opened up our healthcare exchange on October 1 at 12:01am, Kentuckians started swarming all over that website, and today, 9 months later, 521,000 Kentuckians, almost 1 in 10 Kentuckians have signed up for affordable healthcare coverage.”
He repeated the 521K number not once more but twice; obviously this was the key talking point he wanted to emphasize. Unfortunately, as has been typical for Kentucky since the end of open enrollment, he didn't break out QHPs from Medicaid/CHIP enrollments.
The most recent update was 450K as of 6/28. During open enrollment, KY was running roughly 20% QHPs to 80% Medicaid. Since that time, I've assumed that this has dropped to a 10/90 ratio, making it around 87K QHPs to 363K Medicaid.
This time around I'll be even more cautious and figure roughly a 6/94 split for the 71,000 additional enrollees, or around 4,000 more QHPs and 66,740 additional Medicaid/CHIP enrollees, or 91,000 & 430,000 respectively.
Now, I may be shifting things towards the Medicaid side too heavily, but that's OK. Kentucky's Medicaid enrollees have been consistently around 75% previously uninsured. That means if I'm right, KY has now enrolled 92% of all 350,000 residents eligible for Medicaid expansion. If I'm wrong, it means that this is more like 90%...but it also means even more on private health plans, which is supposed to be a good thing, right?