OK, I'm as geeked as any ACA supporter, but some context and clarification is important here. Last year there was a lot of confusion about the distinction between someone:
creating an account
submitting an application
selecting/committing to a plan, and
paying their first month's premium.
The 8.02 million figure through April 19th touted by the administration last spring represented 3) Selecting a plan.
Of that, the actual number who followed through and 4) paid their first premium (thus activating--or "effectuating" to use the industry lingo--their policy) ended up being roughly 88%, or around 7.1 million.
Yes, I know, I know: Who wouldn't want to spend an hour watching Andrew Sprung (aka xpostfactoid1) and myself discuss the minutiae of the 2015 Open Enrollment Period, my projections from the other day and the design/usability improvements at Healthcare.Gov?? Contain yourselves, people!!
(OK, OK, you don't have to watch the full hour--it's broken into 5-8 minute snippets)
However, I can say that based on my (very limited) poking around the web, it appears that not only is Healthcare.Gov doing fine, so are most of the state-run exchanges...except for two of them (and not the ones you'd think):
California: I heard anecdotal evidence that CoveredCA was having some significant issues on opening day, but it wasn't until I checked their Twitter feed and saw a series of posts like this that I grew concerned:
Washington State: The WAHealthplan Finder issued this notice this afternoon:
Status Updates & Maintenance Schedule
November 15, 2014
During the first open enrollment period, the official data releases from the various exchanges ranged all over the place.
HHS, of course, only issued monthly reports, without giving any official data in between (that is, until the numbers started looking good, at which point they issued milestone press releases of "3 million", "5 million" and so on, although even then they didn't give exact numbers or dates).
Some of the state exchanges stuck with monthly numbers as well (Colorado), while others gave out data roughly weekly (Nevada, via Twitter), bi-weekly, or whenever they happened to feel like it (most of the other states). As things ramped up towards March/April, some states started issuing regular weekly updates (including Oregon, which is ironic given all of their technical problems).
Unfortunately, I'm not sure whether "processed completed applications" means actual enrollments or just accounts created. Presumably HHS will provide better clarity on this sort of language (and quickly) going forward. Plus, of course, a single policy enrollment could have 2, 3 or more people in a household.
However, I'm happy to report the very first official enrollment update is also already available, and it's out of Vermont, one of the states with a highly-troubled exchange last time around!
During the 2014 Open Enrollment Period, the federal exchange at Healthcare.Gov enrolled 68% of the 8.02 million total through April 19th. However, it didn't start out that way; 68% was the cumulative percentage. Due to the severe technical problems at HC.gov (along with some of the state exchanges), during the first month, the federal site only made up 25% of the total. As technical problems were worked out, this ratio shifted dramatically as follows:
October: 25% Federal, 75% State-based
November: 43% Federal, 57% State-based
December: 59% Federal, 41% State-based
January: 65% Federal, 35% State-based
February: 72% Federal, 35% State-based
March/April: 75% Federal, 25% State-based
As you can see, once HC.gov worked the bugs out, it took off bigtime, and was enrolling 75% of the total by the time the Big Surge came at the end.
Health industry officials say ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the administration.
The expected rate hikes will be announced in the coming months amid an intense election year, when control of the Senate is up for grabs. The sticker shock would likely bolster the GOP’s prospects in November and hamper ObamaCare insurance enrollment efforts in 2015.
...The insurance official, who hails from a populous swing state, said his company expects to triple its rates next year on the ObamaCare exchange.
Because Ed Lyons is the same guy who wrote The Health Connector Autopsy Report, which documented everything that went wrong with the MA ACA exchange project, from before the beginning until after the end. I mean, everything.
All 31,000 words of it.
It's difficult to get across just how in-depth, comprehensive or well-researched/documented that report is. It's also important to understand that a) to the best of my knowledge, like myself, Mr. Lyons didn't do it for money or for fun; it was something of an obsession for him. It should also be noted that Mr. Lyons is a Republican.
Lots of people have spent today saying stuff like this:
OK, the numbers have barely moved, and technically this update is missing 3 days (it only runs through 11/11 instead of 11/14), but MNsure has been the only exchange, federal or state, which has provided an almost odometer-like frequency of off-exchange updates.
California: I heard anecdotal evidence that CoveredCA was having some significant issues on opening day, but it wasn't until I checked their Twitter feed and saw a series of posts like this that I grew concerned:
