Open enrollment with kynect ended this past weekend on February 15, 2015. If Kentuckians make a good faith effort to complete their enrollments with kynect prior to the February 15, 2015 deadline but were unable to do so due to technical difficulties with the application process or problems reaching the call center, we will work with applicants to secure that coverage through February 28, 2015.
Please contact the call center at 1-855-4kynect and ask to be transferred to the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange (KHBE) Tier II staff for assistance with these applications.
Kentucky was the last state to announce some sort of of "In Line by Midnight"/Overtime extension period.
I'm not at all surprised that the exchanges are starting to announce "tax season" enrollment periods already. The only thing I'm surprised by is the length of these special periods. I figured they'd do something like April 1st - 15th...instead, all 3 (Washington, Minnesota and now Vermont) are going for 2-month periods or even longer:
WA: 2/17 - 4/17 (effectively just extending the enrollment period by 2 months)
MN: 3/01 - 4/30
VT: 2/16 - 5/31 (a full 3 1/2 months...with the caveat that it has to be "within 60 days of discovering" that they have to pay the fee, which isn't exactly the sort of thing that one can prove one way or the other, y'know?)
Again, it's important to keep in mind that there are 3 main reasons for having a deadline/cut-off at all: First, prevents people from gaming the system by waiting until they're sick to enroll. Secondly, it allows the insurance companies ample time for their actuaries to crunch the numbers for the next year. Finally, it acts as a great motivator, as evidenced by the huge surges in December and again last week (even if the 2nd surge wasn't quite as large as I was expecting).
UPDATED 2/19/15 11:55pm: New data from Colorado, DC and Vermont added! UPDATED 2/20/15 10:10PM: New data from Massachusetts, Connecticut & Kentucky
OK, hopefully there will be at least another 400K+ to plug into these tables, but with the official deadline out of the way, we have a pretty solid picture of where the states stand now.
Again, it's important to remember that the 2014 numbers included the 2-week "overtime" period, when 900K additional people selected a plan, while the 2015 numbers only include the official enrollment period.
In fact, there's still up to a solid month of data missing from several states for this year!!
Why? Because it's a rolling average. The million-plus people who selected a plan in the final 9 days of open enrollment don't even start their policy coverage until March 1st. Many of their premium payments aren't due for another week. Most people tend to wait until just a few days before the due date to pay their cable, gas, phone bills...and with automated billing, in many cases the payment will go through automatically on the due date itself anyway.
First, as noted this morning, California has tacked on an extra 2 days to their "In Line by Midnight" period (previously ending on 2/20; now extended to 2/22)
Second, Vermont, which didn't appear to be allowing for any extra time beyond postmarking a paper application as of Tuesday, has apparently decided to go ahead and allow an "In Line by Midnight" exception thorugh February 23rd:
But by February 18, the exchange was offering an extension to people who tried to enroll by February 15 but were unable to do so by the deadline. This has not been published on the exchange website, but an exchange representative confirmed that the extension runs through February 23, and that the call center (855-899-9600) will help enrollees complete the process between now and then.
Another 1,678 QHP determinations yesterday. At this point, I think it's safe to say that pretty much anyone who's bothering to go through the trouble of setting up an account and submitting an application is also following through and selecting a plan, but for the moment I'll just go with 60% and figure 1,000 people actually did so, for 131K or more total.
Meanwhile, Medicaid enrollment is up to over 256K.
It's a long press release, but here's the latest update out of Rhode Island (which has a FULL extension/overtime policy through 2/23).
The grand total: 30,744 QHPs, of which 27,487 have paid their first premium (89.4%). The payment rate has gone down because a huge number of those 30,744 just enrolled in the past week or so, and thus their payments aren't due for another week yet.
SHOP enrollments now stand at 3,349.
HEALTHSOURCE RI RELEASES ENROLLMENT, DEMOGRAPHIC AND VOLUME DATA THROUGH FEBRUARY 15, 2015
Posted on February 18, 2015 | By HealthSource RI
PROVIDENCE – HealthSource RI (HSRI) has released enrollment data, certain demographic data and certain volume metrics through Sunday, February 15, 2015, the last day of Open Enrollment.
Press Release: NY State of Health Ends Second Open Enrollment with More Than 2.1 Million Enrollees
Feb 18, 2015
ALBANY, N.Y. (February 18, 2015)—New York State of Health, the state’s official health plan Marketplace, today announced that more than 2.1 million people signed up for health insurance by the end of the second open enrollment period, which began on November 15, 2014 and ended on February 15, 2015. Eighty-eight percent of Marketplace enrollees reported that they were uninsured at the time they enrolled. New Yorkers who have enrolled in coverage through the Marketplace have overwhelmingly reported that they are satisfied with their health insurance (92 percent) and are using their coverage to access care (84 percent).
OK, this is just silly. Last night the official announcement stated that 11.4 million people "signed up for" private healthcare policies via the ACA exchanges, right?
You, me and everyone (including critics) assumed that this meant 11.4 million had either renewed their 2014 policy, switched their 2014 policy or newly selected a 2015 policy, right??
Of the 11.4 million, 8.6 million consumers selected a plan or were automatically re-enrolled in the 37 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform. In addition, preliminary analyses of data provided by State-Based Marketplaces show that about 2.8 million consumers selected plans or were automatically re-enrolled between November 15 and February 15 in those states. Further details about plan selections from State-Based Marketplaces may be announced by the states and will be included within the upcoming monthly enrollment report.
California originally announced that they'd allow 5 extra days for people who were Waiting In Line as of midnight on 2/15 to complete their enrollment (through 2/20).
You Have Until Feb. 22 to Get Across the Finish Line for Health Coverage
Open enrollment for private health coverage through Covered California in 2015 is now over, but Medi-Cal enrollment is year-round (read more below). If you started the process of enrolling in a Covered California plan by Feb. 15 but did not complete your application, you may complete it by Feb. 22 with the assistance of a certified enroller, and you need to pay your first premium payment on that same day in order for your coverage to take effect March 1, 2015.
