UPDATE: Minnesota: Over 91,000 QHPs* + 93,000 BHPs in first 2 weeks

Breaking out of Minnesota:

More than 91,000 Minnesotans have Enrolled in Private Health Plans through MNsure for 2018

November 15, 2017

ST. PAUL, Minn.—Today, MNsure announced 91,623 Minnesotans have enrolled in private health plan coverage for 2018 through MNsure.

The numbers reported include new consumers, renewing consumers who have come back and shopped for a new plan for 2018, and renewing consumers who are continuing their previous plan for 2018.

"Our first two weeks have gone very smoothly," said CEO Allison O'Toole. "MNsure's enrollment is looking strong out of the gate. This year, we renewed twice as many people into coverage than last year, and we're also seeing a steady stream of new consumers."

By the Numbers

• Private health plan enrollments: 91,623
• Call volume: 23,584
• Average speed of answer: 1 second
• Plan comparison sessions: 60,701

The 2018 open enrollment period is November 1, 2017, to January 14, 2018. Ninety-six percent of Minnesotans have health coverage—the highest percentage in state history. This year, an individual earning up to $48,240 a year, or a family of four earning up to $98,400 a year could qualify. More information can be found at MNsure.org.

This is rather stunning. For comparison, last year, MNsure enrolled 23,883 people in the first 13 days (one off). Here's where this gets really interesting: Check out this quote from last year's press release:

Thus far during open enrollment, more than 60 percent of those who have signed up for private plans via MNsure are new to the exchange, O’Toole said. That’s a higher share, she said, than at healthcare.gov.

OK, that means that fewer than 9,300 of the enrollees in the first two weeks of last year were renewals, right?

Next, take another look at today's press release:

This year, we renewed twice as many people into coverage than last year

If I'm reading that correctly, that means that only around 19,000 of the 91,623 QHP selections this year are for renewing enrollees...meaning that nearly 80% are new vs. just 20% renewals??

I've asked for clarification on that, but if accurate...wow. This might be connected to Minnesota's unusual reinsurance program, their unique "enrollment cap" policy or both; I'll update this post when I find out what the deal is.

In addition, the official MNsure enrollment summary page also states that Minnesota has enrolled 93,049 people in MinnesotaCare, the state's name for the ACA's Basic Health Program, which is only available in MN and New York at the moment. These aren't officially counted as ACA Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) but they draw from the same population, so I list them separately on The Graph.

*UPDATE: OK, I've received a clarification from MNsure: It looks like they've joined states like Rhode Island in "front-loading" their auto-renewals. This accounts for much of the dramatic increase in early enrollment, although it's still an impressive number regardless. I'm told that around 5,000 of the 91,623 enrollees are new, leaving around 86,600 renewals.

Last year MNsure had 109,974 QHP selections total by the end of Open Enrollment. 86,600 is about 79% of that, which is actually a higher retention/renewal rate than the national average, so MNsure deserves kudos for that as well.