Colorado: 121.6K QHPs, 50K Medicaid/CHIP thru 1/15

Hot off the presses...

During the first eight weeks of open enrollment, 121,650 people enrolled in private coverage through Connect for Health Colorado and 47,724 in Medicaid and 2,272 in CHP+.  Connect for Health Colorado also enrolled 20,580 individuals in dental plans.
 
“The enrollments in Medicaid and Connect for Health Colorado show that Coloradans are attuned to the importance of having health insurance coverage,” said Susan Birch, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. “Whether Coloradans have health insurance coverage through private insurance or through Medicaid, health coverage is the first step to better health.”  

Colorado's last update ran through New Year's Eve, totalling 113,864 QHP enrollees, or 362 per day since the 12/15 deadline. That gives a nice apples-to-apples comparison to the new number (7,786 higher), which averages 519 per day...up over 40% per day since the holiday period.

Of course, the prior period included 3 holidays (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve) while the current period only includes 1 (New Year's Day), so instead of 15 days vs. 16, it's more like 14 days vs. 13. Even so, the mid-January surge is still evident.

With this update, CO has reached 62% of their 2015 open enrollment period goal (194K) and 58% of my own target for the state (208K).

If the mid-February surge proves not to be any more significant than the mid-January one was, that would mean they'd add around 16,000 more by 2/15, or around 138K total. However, I'm still suspecting a dramatic last-minute surge along the lines of late March from last year (or at least mid-December of this year), which gives them a shot at pulling off at least their own target, if not mine.