Charles Gaba's blog

BeWell NM, New Mexico's ACA exchange, is the only state marketplace with ongoing daily enrollment data reports:

New Mexico Open Enrollment 2026 - Enrollment Summary

Last Refreshed On: December 31st, 2025

• Active Re-enrollees: 17,287
• New Enrollees: 8,443
• Auto-Re-enrollees: 53,042
• Total: 78,772

By comparison, at the same point last year, BeWell NM reported:

• Active Re-enrollees: 19,216
• New Enrollees: 6,644
• Auto-Re-enrollees: 39,826
• Total: 65,686

In other words, new enrollments are up 27% while active renewals are down about 10%; they pretty much cancel each other out compared to the same point last year.

via CoverME, Maine's ACA exchange:

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of the Health Insurance Marketplace (OHIM) will release biweekly updates on plan selections through CoverME.gov, Maine’s Health Insurance Marketplace.  

Plan selections provide a snapshot of activity by new and returning consumers who have selected a plan for 2026. “Plan selections” become “enrollments” once consumers have paid their first monthly premium to begin coverage. These numbers are subject to change as consumers may modify or cancel plans after their initial selection.   

The deadline to select a plan for coverage beginning January 1, 2026 is December 15, 2025. Consumers who select a plan between December 16, 2025 and January 15, 2026 will have coverage beginning February 1, 2026. 

via the New Jersey Dept. of Banking & Insurance:

TRENTON — With a critical deadline approaching to enroll in 2026 health coverage through Get Covered New Jersey, Department of Banking and Insurance Commissioner Justin Zimmerman is encouraging residents in need of health insurance to enroll by December 31st for coverage that is effective on January 1st . 

Open Enrollment at Get Covered New Jersey, the state’s Official Health Insurance Marketplace, runs from November 1, 2025, through January 31, 2026, but consumers must enroll in a plan by December 31, 2025, for coverage beginning January 1, 2026. Those who enroll by January 31, 2026, will have coverage beginning on February 1, 2026.

via Covered California's Open Enrollment Dashboard, as of December 27th:

• New enrollments: 137,958
• Active renewals: 479,358
• Passive Autorenewals: 1,318,779
• Total: 1,936,095

As I've noted before: While I include the passive/auto-renewal number for completeness sake, that number won't really be relevant until after the deadline for January 1st coverage passes (which isn't until New Year's Eve in California).

More important for the moment is the total number of active enrollments, which includes both new enrollees as well as current enrollees who log into their account and actively select a plan for 2026.

In California, those come to 617,316 combined.

As of the same point last year (actually 1 day more; the data from last year is as of 12/28), Covered CA was reporting:

The Trump Regime has published an update to the official Medicaid/CHIP enrollment data:

September 2025 Key Findings

Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment

• In September 2025, 77.1 million individuals were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.
• 69.8 million individuals were enrolled in Medicaid, and 7.3 million individuals were enrolled in CHIP.
• 40.3 million adults were enrolled in Medicaid, and there were 36.7 million Medicaid child and CHIP enrollees.

Total Medicaid/CHIP enrollment in September 2025 of ~77.1 million dropped about 0.9% from July 2025, or by around 700,000 people.

Originally posted 12/19/25

Since we're past the initial December 15th Open Enrollment Deadline for coverage starting January 1st in most states and since there's been several enrollment deadline extensions announced by various states (including two more today), I figured this would be a good time to post a completely updated rundown of just what the remaining deadlines are for every state as well as what your options are if you miss them.

This is basically a standalone version of the first section of my annual Open Enrollment Guide; I hope that separating it out will make it less overwhelming.

IDAHO: December 15th was the only deadline for 2026 coverage. If you missed it, you're pretty much out of luck unless you qualify for one of the following exceptions: