OK, strike that...Colorado has released their newest data as well as DC and Vermont, leaving just 3 states to go (Connecticut (data since 2/13), Kentucky (data since 2/12) and Idaho, which hasn't posted any updates since way back on January 17th...over a month ago.
DENVER, CO – Between Nov. 15 and Feb. 15, nearly 220,000 Coloradans enrolled in healthcare coverage for 2015, either in private plans purchased through the health insurance Marketplace, or with Medicaid or Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+), according to new data released today by Connect for Health Colorado® and the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.
During the three-month open enrollment period, 139,652 people enrolled in private coverage through Connect for Health Colorado; another 76,194 in Medicaid and 3,720 in CHP+. Connect for Health Colorado also enrolled 24,884 individuals in dental plans.
WIth the DC and Vermont updates this evening, there are now only 4 states which haven't brought their enrollment data up through the end of open enrollment: CO, CT, ID and KY:
Vermont Health Connect Open Enrollment and Renewal Update
The following numbers are up-to-date as of 11:59pm Sunday, February 15, 2015.
New Vermont Health Connect Customers
15,422 individuals have checked out a 2015 health plan. This includes 6,211 individuals in Qualified Health Plans (private health insurance) and 9,211 individuals in Medicaid or Dr. Dynasaur plans.
After a new customer checks out a plan, they must make an initial premium payment and have their selection processed before they have an active health plan. Of the 15,422 individuals who checked out, 11,704 have completed the enrollment process and have an active health plan (i.e., effectuated enrollment). Of those who completed the process, 3,471 are on a Qualified Health Plan and 8,233 are on Medicaid or Dr. Dynasaur.
The good news is that the DC exchange has released their official enrollment data through 2/15. The bad news is that it's slightly lower than I had previously thought, for exactly the reason that bothered me a few weeks back...they kept listing the cumulative enrollments since October 2013, mixing in those who never paid or who didn't renew for 2014. Fortunately, the difference is pretty minor:
Today, the DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority (HBX) released individual marketplace data for the second open enrollment period for DCHealthLink.com, the District’s online health insurance marketplace for individuals, families and small businesses.
Last week I posted an exclusive piece over at healthinsurance.org called "Hating ‘Obama’ but loving the ‘Care’ which noted an ongoing irony: The very red/red-leaning states which tend to "hate" the ACA the most are actually the ones signing up for it in droves. At the time, by grouping the states into one category or the other (using judgment calls for some states...I put Michigan in the blue column but Wisconsin in the red, for instance), I noted that the red states had a dramatically higher number of enrollments, even when the total populations are nearly identical in each group.
Today I've updated this data with the most recent numbers, and the difference is even more striking.
The numbers are starting to quetly ramp up again as we approach the MA Health Connector's extended enrollment deadline (February 23rd): 1,247 QHP determinations on Monday; 1,678 on Tuesday and 2,366 yesterday. Assuming at least 70% of these went on to actually enroll (I can't imagine it'd be any lower than that at this point...who would bother applying this late in the game if they don't plan on following through??), actual QHP selections should be up to 132.5K or higher at this point.
Medicaid in Massachusetts is now up to over 260,000.
At this point, either the original estimates were way off, the economic situation in Michigan has changed dramatically since last year, or there's something seriously weird going on:
Healthy Michigan Plan Enrollment Statistics
Beneficiaries with Healthy Michigan Plan Coverage: 559,965
(Includes beneficiaries enrolled in health plans and beneficiaries not required to enroll in a health plan.)
*Statistics as of February 17, 2015
*Updated every Monday at 3 p.m.
Again, the original estimates were that somewhere between 477K - 500K Michiganders were eligible for the program. They're up to between 12% - 17% above that range now.
This is a "mini" update, as it doesn't include the final weekend, but it still means that CT nudged over their internal 100K targetwithout those last 2 crucial days:
As of 2/13, there were 103,007 QHP Enrollees and 433,429 medicaid customers. #AHCTBoDMeeting
The Medicaid number is a bit misleading; I'm almost certain that 433K figure refers to everyone in Medicaid state-wide, not just via ACA expansion. The state only has 3.6 million people total; I find it difficult to believe that 12% of the population falls into the expansion range specifically.
They also threw in the SHOP tally:
Dental plans & the SHOP program continues to show solid gains. Over 1,100 SHOP members enrolled. #AHCTBoDMeeting
Open enrollment with kynect ended this past weekend on February 15, 2015. If Kentuckians make a good faith effort to complete their enrollments with kynect prior to the February 15, 2015 deadline but were unable to do so due to technical difficulties with the application process or problems reaching the call center, we will work with applicants to secure that coverage through February 28, 2015.
Please contact the call center at 1-855-4kynect and ask to be transferred to the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange (KHBE) Tier II staff for assistance with these applications.
Kentucky was the last state to announce some sort of of "In Line by Midnight"/Overtime extension period.
I'm not at all surprised that the exchanges are starting to announce "tax season" enrollment periods already. The only thing I'm surprised by is the length of these special periods. I figured they'd do something like April 1st - 15th...instead, all 3 (Washington, Minnesota and now Vermont) are going for 2-month periods or even longer:
WA: 2/17 - 4/17 (effectively just extending the enrollment period by 2 months)
MN: 3/01 - 4/30
VT: 2/16 - 5/31 (a full 3 1/2 months...with the caveat that it has to be "within 60 days of discovering" that they have to pay the fee, which isn't exactly the sort of thing that one can prove one way or the other, y'know?)
Again, it's important to keep in mind that there are 3 main reasons for having a deadline/cut-off at all: First, prevents people from gaming the system by waiting until they're sick to enroll. Secondly, it allows the insurance companies ample time for their actuaries to crunch the numbers for the next year. Finally, it acts as a great motivator, as evidenced by the huge surges in December and again last week (even if the 2nd surge wasn't quite as large as I was expecting).
UPDATED 2/19/15 11:55pm: New data from Colorado, DC and Vermont added! UPDATED 2/20/15 10:10PM: New data from Massachusetts, Connecticut & Kentucky
OK, hopefully there will be at least another 400K+ to plug into these tables, but with the official deadline out of the way, we have a pretty solid picture of where the states stand now.
Again, it's important to remember that the 2014 numbers included the 2-week "overtime" period, when 900K additional people selected a plan, while the 2015 numbers only include the official enrollment period.
In fact, there's still up to a solid month of data missing from several states for this year!!
Last week I posted an exclusive piece over at healthinsurance.org called 
