Massachusetts: Effectuated exchange enrollments up 13% since March

In addition to releasing their 2017 enrollment data for the first 8 days of November, the Massachusetts Health Connector has posted their latest monthly enrollment report (through the end of October), and the news is good. As I note every month:

Unlike most states, the Massachusetts Health Connector has not only seen no net attrition since the end of Open Enrollment, but has actually seen a net increase in enrollment...mainly due to their unique "ConnectorCare" policies, which are fully Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) but have additional financial assistance for those who qualify and which are available year-round instead of being limited to the open enrollment period.

The amount of the increase depends on which "official" number you start with; the MA exchange claimed 196,554 people as of 1/31/16...while the ASPE report gives it as 213,883 as of the next day....yet their March report claims 208,000 effectuated enrollees as of February.

Given this discrepancy and the fact that the Q1 2016 effectuated enrollment report has been out for awhile, I'm going to use the 3/31 number (207,121 effectuated enrollees) as the comparison point going forward.

According to the dashboard report, as of November 2nd, the MA Health Connector had 233,536 people enrolled in effectuated policies, or 12.8% more than they had at the end of March.

Since we're in the middle of the 2017 open enrollment period right now, it's important to clarify that this is how many people are currently enrolled in 2016 exchange policies. This is the number of people who are eligible to renew or switch to a different exchange policy for 2017: