No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn: Minnesota Edition: Deadline extended again, 1,100 QHPs in past 2 days

(sigh) This is gonna be a lonnnng month for me...

MNsure Extends Enrollment Deadline for January 1 Coverage to December 31

MNsure sent this bulletin at 12/19/2014 11:34 AM CST

December 19, 2014

MNSURE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MNsure Extends Enrollment Deadline for January 1 Coverage to December 31
Decision follows transfer of enrollment information to insurance carriers and aligns enrollment deadlines for January 1 coverage

ST. PAUL, Minn.—In an effort to provide more time for Minnesotans who qualify for financial help available only through MNsure, the organization today announced it would extend the enrollment deadline to December 31 for January 1 coverage.

Minnesotans must now enroll in coverage through MNsure by noon on Wednesday, December 31, to have their coverage effective on January 1, 2015. The change comes at a time of high interest in MNsure and as many health insurance companies recently extended their own enrollment deadlines for January 1 coverage.

DON'T DELAY, ACT NOW!!

...Even with this second deadline extension, MNsure is strongly urging Minnesotans not to wait until the last minute to enroll in health coverage. Calls to the MNsure Contact Center on December 15 averaged 1,600 per hour, a historically high number.

This is amusing; remember a few days back when MNsure insisted that their original extension was not due to technical problems? Yeah, about that...

MNsure is aware of some irregularity in enrollment information sent to the health plans, and the plans will need extra time to process the data they receive. It is extremely unlikely that if a consumer waits to enroll in health insurance coverage, that they will have an insurance ID card in hand by January 1.

“Rest assured, if you enroll by the deadline on December 31 and pay your insurance company in full by your invoice due date, you will still be covered. However, it is in the best interest of all Minnesotans to enroll as soon as possible and to not wait," said Leitz.

As an aside, they also threw in an enrollment update as well:

As of Thursday, 52,898 Minnesotans have successfully enrolled in comprehensive, affordable health insurance coverage. 24,893 have enrolled in a Qualified Health Plan, 8,397 have enrolled in MinnesotaCare and 19,608 have enrolled in Medical Assistance.

They actually had just posted an update 2 days earlier, so the numbers haven't changed much, but they're still pretty good: 1,096 QHPs in 2 days, plus 2,436 in either Medicaid or MinnesotaCare.

UPDATE: Thanks to MNsure for the link to their board meeting PDF, which also gives the new/renewal breakout (roughly 40% renewals / 60% new), as well as the SHOP tally (1,539).