Deadline to Apply for Health Insurance for the 2019 Plan Year is Dec. 15
Nine in 10 Idahoans Qualify for a Tax Credit to Help Lower Monthly Premiums
BOISE, Idaho – Idahoans wanting health insurance coverage starting on January 1, only have a few days left to enroll in a plan for 2019 with Your Health Idaho, the state’s health insurance exchange. Idahoans must complete their application by midnight, December 15 in order to have coverage at the start of the new year. In response to high demand, Your Health Idaho is extending its support center hours to help customers enroll or answer any questions.
Again, I realize that doesn't mean much of anything on its own; I haven't a clue what counts as "high demand" in Idaho or how it differs from prior years. Still, it does suggest that things are running smoothly at the Idaho exchange.
They just updated that tally for me: 104,162 signups as of EOD 12/6.
Last year, MNsure broke 100,000 enrollments as of 11/23 and 101,626 as of 12/15, which should have put them at right around 100,900 QHP selections as of 12/06/17. That means the current total is around 3.2% ahead of the same point last year.
It's important to note that unlike most states, Minnesota's 2019 Open Enrollment Period doesn't end on the 15th (although you do have to sign up by then in order to have coverage start on January 1st); Minnesotans still have until January 13th to enroll (anyone who enrolls after 12/15 will have their coverage kick in on February 1st instead).
With major enrollment updates from California, New York, DC and Massachusetts and especially the Week 5 update from HC.gov all rolling in over the past couple of days, I thought this would be a good point to put it all together and see where things stand just ahead of the big final push (for most states).
Here's a state-by-state breakout of confirmed QHP selections. All 39 HC.gov states as well as New York are as of 12/01, while California, Colorado and Connecticut are all as of 11/30; Rhode Island and Washington State are as of 11/28. The outliers are DC and MN (11/13 and 11/14) and Massachusetts (thru 12/04). I don't have any enrollment data from Idaho, Maryland or Vermont as of yet.
When comparing the year over year numbers, I have not corrected the HC.gov states for the missing day below, but I did add a column noting how many days worth of data are missing in each state.
As you can see, all of the HC.gov states are running behind last year as of roughly the same point in time (Florida is slightly ahead if you adjust for the missing day). As a whole, the 39 HC.gov states are down 11.3% so far.
In week three of the 2019 Open Enrollment, 773,250 people selected plans using the HealthCare.gov platform. As in past years, enrollment weeks are measured Sunday through Saturday. Consequently, the cumulative totals reported in this snapshot reflect one fewer day than last year.
Every week during Open Enrollment, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will release enrollment snapshots for the HealthCare.gov platform, which is used by the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and some State-based Exchanges. These snapshots provide point-in-time estimates of weekly plan selections, call center activity, and visits to HealthCare.gov or CuidadoDeSalud.gov.
Press Release: NY State of Health Announces 2019 Enrollment is Up in First Month of Open Enrollment Period
Dec 5, 2018
More than 930,000 Consumers Enroll in a Qualified Health Plan or the Essential Plan
December 15 is the Deadline to Enroll for January 1, 2019 Coverage
ALBANY, N.Y. (December 5, 2018) - NY State of Health, the official health plan Marketplace, today announced in the first four weeks of the 2019 open enrollment period, enrollment is outpacing last year.More than 930,000 consumers have enrolled or renewed coverage in a Qualified Health Plan or the Essential Plan for 2019. Consumers must enroll or renew by December 15, for coverage beginning January 1, 2019.
Things weren't looking great as of two weeks in: Total enrollments were down 6.8% (1,202 people) year over year as of the same date. We'll have to see whether things have picked up since then.
As with most other state-based exchanges, the numbers for both years include auto-renewals, which means the vast bulk of 2019 enrollments are likely already baked in. Last year's final tally was 19,289; DC had already reached 85% of that as of 11/13.
DC's report also includes all sorts of wonky demographic breakout data, and even closes with currently effectuated numbers for both the individual and small business (SHOP) markets. Remember, DC's SHOP market is unusually high (especially compared to the individual market) because the ACA requires all members of Congress and their staff to enroll using it if they want their 72% FEHB subsidy.
I just received another official update from the MA Health Connector...
On enrollment, as of today, we have 261,619 enrolled members for January. We have an additional 14,368 plan selections made (but unpaid) for a total of 275,994 under the CMS definitions. New enrollments for 2019 continue to trend slightly ahead of last year.
A week or so ago I noted that Massachusetts had enrolled just over 264,000 people (10,000 of whom hadn't actually paid their January premium yet...MA's exchange is one of the only states which is able to actually track payment data live, since they handle it themselves). They were up 10K over the same date in 2017, or up around 4% year over year.
I don't have a hard "thru 12/05" number for 2017 this week, but they did confirm the 276K number is still "slightly ahead", which is good.
Michigan was pretty much Ground Zero for the 2018 Blue Wave midterm elections. In addition to Democrats flipping the Governor's seat (and holding onto Debbie Stabenow's U.S. Senate seat), they also flipped the Attorney General, Secretary of State, one of two state Supreme Court seats, both of the stateBoard of Education seats which were up and all six state University Board seats which were up. In addition, they picked up two U.S. House seats, five state Senate seats and five state House seats.
It was a complete and utter repudiation of both Republican governance and their agenda.
As Democratic candidates prepare to take three statewide offices on Jan. 1 — governor, attorney general and secretary of state — Republican lawmakers introduced bills Thursday to challenge their authority.
