I'm pretty sure that in this case, "applications completed" does refer to actual "plans selected", judging from both the number from a day earlier (1,500) and the context of the quote, although I could be wrong (I also think that's supposed to read "through early Tuesday afternoon...")
Andrew Ratner, a spokesman for the exchange, said it seems to be working well so far. Ratner said 5,324 people have applied and 1,915 applications have been completed since early Tuesday afternoon.
A nice, detailed but to-the-point update out of DC (which supersedes my earlier post):
Meanwhile, as of Monday, D.C. Health Link had a little more than 9,000 visits to its website from about 6,300 visitors. The exchange had 708 total applications and 212 plan selections for 249 covered lives. Officials said they were off to a strong start toward their enrollment goals this year, though they've declined to disclose specific numbers.
This also shows the importance of using the correct number:
As I noted yesterday, the good news is that Massachusetts is posting daily metric reports on the new ACA Health Connector exchange, a level of frequency which surpasses even Minnesota.
The (mildly irritating) news is that with all of that data being served up daily, the main number that concerns me here at ACASignups--the "number who've selected a plan"--will only be included weekly, every Monday.
Still, until then I can at least get a rough idea. The most recent official press release stated that 3,600 QHPs had been enrolled in out of 6,972 people "determined eligible" for them, or 52% of the total. This number will bounce around from day to day, no doubt, but it's a reasonable starting point to use until Monday.
So, assuming 52% of "determined eligibles" are consistently actually enrolling in policies, today's dashboard report suggests that the number for the first 4 days has reached over 8,400 out of 16,293 total:
Nice to have an official number, and like the other state-run exchanges which have overhauled their systems, Minnesota's 2015 kickoff is a massive improvement over last year:
Strong Enrollment
Since the 2015 open enrollment period began on Saturday, 1,516 consumers have enrolled in Qualified Health Plans through the MNsure marketplace. By contrast, 406 consumers enrolled in Qualified Health Plans during the first two weeks of the 2014 open enrollment period, meaning MNsure has enrolled four times more people in its first four days than it did last year in two weeks. Also, 765 have enrolled in MinnesotaCare and 2,431 have enrolled in Medical Assistance. MNsure is the only place for Minnesotans to find out if they are eligible for financial assistance such as tax credits, and low-cost or no-cost coverage.
The 51 states (including the District of Columbia) that provided enrollment data for September 2014 reported nearly 68 million individuals were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. This enrollment count is point-in-time (on the last day of the month) and includes all enrollees in the Medicaid and CHIP programs who are receiving a comprehensive benefit package.
340,159 additional people were enrolled in September 2014 as compared to August 2014 in the 51 states that reported comparable September and August data.
Looking at the additional enrollment since October 2013 when the initial Marketplace open enrollment period began, among the 49 states reporting both September 2014 enrollment data and data from July-September of 2013, over 9.1 million additional individuals are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP, approximately a 16 percent increase over the average monthly enrollment for July through September of 2013. (Connecticut and Maine are not included in this count.)
From a state exchange roundup report; I've already reported on every data point they have except for this one out of DC:
By the end of the day Saturday the District of Columbia enrolled 66 people at an event downtown. DC Health Link upgraded this year, including features like providing more information about each health plan. More than 15,000 people enrolled in private plans last year and nearly the same number enrolled on the small business exchange. Health care premiums for 2015 will increase by 11 percent.
This afternoon I was contacted by Erik Wemple, a writer for the Washington Post, to discuss a story about the elusive enrollment data from the HHS Dept. Yes, Sec. Burwell did give out some general First Day metrics on Sunday morning: 500K people logging on, 100K submitting applications. However, that's not the key number that people (including myself, of course) are most interested in.
Unfortunately, I was on the other line at the time (with someone from a different media outlet, as it happens), and I had to pick my kid up from school after that, and wasn't able to get back to the Wemple in time. I guess he had a tight deadline to meet, because shortly thereafter, his story ran:
Those disclosures are fine as far as they go. But Bloomberg health-care reporter Alex Wayne suggests that the data release follow a more systematic format:
Massachusetts is issuing daily updates on traffic at its #Obamacare exchange. http://HealthCare.Gov can't do this because ... umm ... hrm.
New York (MainStreet) -- With Obamacare open enrollment under way for next year, Americans continue to oppose the Affordable Care Act even as new data reveals that many of us don't even know what's in it.
A recent survey, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, asked ten questions about health insurance under the ACA. Nearly 40% of participants got half of the questions wrong, with 8% getting nothing right at all.
CLEVELAND, Ohio – A new report released Monday by Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio (UHCAN) is sharing the challenges people faced during the first open enrollment period through the Affordable Care Act, and is providing suggestions on how to improve access, especially for people living in communities of color.
Based on the findings of the report, conducted with the think tank PolicyBridge and funded by the Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation, UHCAN is recommending that enrollment navigators and other assisters be more available and accessible in neighborhood and community-based sites. The network is also recommending that follow-up services be provided for people new to insurance, not only to help connect them with a primary care provider, but to make sure they know how to use that insurance.
