District of Columbia: 18.7K QHPs thru 12/05, even w/last year

I've just been sent a link to the first official update on ACA exchange enrollment in DC. It includes a whole mess of demographic data (click below for full-size version), but the main takeaway is near the top: 18,740 QHP selections as of December 5th (compared against December 8th of last year). With auto-renewals included, this year's tally is about 2% shy vs. last year, but again, those extra 3 days make a bigger difference than you might think, especially as we approach the mid-December deadline.

It's important to remember that DC, along with California and New York, is sticking with the full 3-month Open Enrollment Period this year, so residents will still have another 6 weeks after 12/15 to sign up for coverage starting in either February or March.

It's also important to note that while the DC carriers don't appear to have any particular strategy for loading CSR costs onto their premiums, this is mainly because only a tiny number of DC exchange enrollees receive CSR assistance in the first place (as shown below, only 4% receive APTC help at all, and CSR enrollees are a subset of that). Why? Because Medicaid covers people up to 212% of the Federal Poverty Line in DC anyway...leaving far fewer people eligible within the 213-250% FPL range to begin with. There just isn't that much CSR assistance which was lost to make a significant impact on premiums.

Meanwhile, chalk up another 18,740 QHPs for OE5.