150,000 *applications* submitted on Day One (not *enrollments*)

Hmmm...OK, yesterday the HHS Dept. reported 60,000 applications submitted in the first 6 hours of Open Enrollment, a 50% increase over last year. Today, they report:

Day 1 of Open Enrollment → 150K apps submitted thru @HealthCareGov. More than day 1 last year. Today, tens of thousands are submitting apps.

— HHS Media (@HHSMedia) November 2, 2016

Again, here's how it compares with the previous two years:

• Sat, Nov. 15th, 2014: Over 100,000 applications the first day
• Sun/Mon Nov. 1st - 2nd, 2015: 250,000 applications the first 2 days
• Tue. Nov. 1st, 2016: 150,000 applications the first day

Again, the day of the week mismatch (weekends the past 2 years, a weekday this year) make it tricky to draw any conclusions, but it sounds like things are off to a good start. In addition, bear in mind that every year there are more people who are currently enrolleed, most of whom presumably don't need to resubmit an application (I'm a little uncertain about this, however; it may also include current enrollees who have to update their data and re-submit new applications).

UPDATE: OK, I've confirmed that yes, updating your existing application with new data (change in income/dependents/etc) does indeed count as an "application submission", so it's not quite as significant as it may sound. Still a solid launch, however.

It's also important to stress, again, that a submitted application is not the same thing as a QHP selection, which is the main number being tracked/reported on. My estimate for that as of 4:00pm today stands at around 133,000 via HealthCare.Gov and around 173,000 nationally, but the only hard number I have so far from any state is "over 3,000 by mid-day yesterday" out of Minnesota.