Final 2025 Open Enrollment Report: New vs. Renewals

Now it's time to move on to the actual demographic breakout of 2025 Open Enrollment Period (OEP) Qualified Health Plan (QHP) enrollment.

First up: Breaking out new enrollees vs. existing enrollees who either actively re-enroll in an exchange plan for another year or who passively allow themselves to be automatically renewed into their current plan (or to be "mapped" to a similar plan if the current one is no longer available).

Nationally, 17% of all exchange QHP enrollees were new this year. The other 83% are current enrollees who signed up for another year, either actively (39%) or passively (45%).

New York had the lowest percent of new enrollees (11%), while Minnesota had the highest at 28%.

As I've noted before, there's still a massive divide between federal and state-based exchanges when it comes to active renewals: Over 45% of federal exchange states actively renewed (which is good!)...but only 22% of state-based exchange enrollees did. Active renewals range from just 8% in Rhode Island & DC to 58% in Utah. 

Again, nationally, 54% of those renewing this year (45% of all enrollees) did so automatically...that is, they took no action whatsoever. This is going to be a major problem this fall given the likely expiration of IRA subsidies and the potential for Silver Loading to be discontinued.

It's also worth noting that for the 31 FFM states only (data not available for the SBM states), around half of those who actively re-enrolled switched to a different plan, while the other half remained in their existing plan or actively chose the crosswalked plan if their current plan was no longer available.