The Connecticut ACA exchange, AccessHealthCT, hasn't given out any official OE3 enrollment updates since November 17th. At the time, their official number appeared to be absurdly high because, like Rhode Island and Massachusetts, CT decided to "front-load" their auto-renewals up front. This is purely a record-keeping/reporting thing, because any of those who have been auto-renewed could still cancel their renewals at any time before January, so it doesn't really impact what the final number ends up being.
Anyway, as of 11/17, Connecticut's official tally was 93,657 current enrollees renewing (either actively or automatically), plus another 5,470 new additions, for a total of 99,127.
Of course, not only does this number not include a solid month's worth of data, the final week of that missing period was last week's mid-December deadline surge. Unlike HC.gov and several other states, CT did not extend their 12/15 deadline for January coverage, although of course residents still have until 1/15 to sign up for February coverage, and until 1/31 to get covered starting in March.
After a bunch of Republican debates in which the ACA in particular and healthcare in general was barely touched upon, and only a minor mention or two of either during the first two Democratic debates, the ACA was finally front and center for one brief, glorious moment during last night's New Hampshire Democratic Primary Debate on ABC.
Unfortunately, when I was actually watching the debate, I got distracted by something and as a result, most of Hillary and Bernie's responses sounded quite solid. However, upon re-watching/reading the transcript, I'm actually kind of...disappointed by both of them, for different reasons (which is particularly stunning given that healthcare reform is such a major part of both of their platforms).
RADDATZ: And we're going to move on to health care.
Yesterday they issued a mid-December update; the total number is now up to over 150,000:
The upcoming deadline coincides with the biggest surge in sign-ups seen during the current enrollment period. Since the start of the month more than 27,000 customers have selected plans for coverage starting Jan. 1, bringing the total number of those selecting coverage since the start of open enrollment to over 150,000.
The enrollment total is likely to increase in the coming days because administration officials are still working with about 1 million people who weren't able to get through to the call center or website near the deadline and left contact information with the exchange.
There's two important things to keep in mind about this number:
NOTE: Today is October 1st, 2016, the 3rd anniversary of the disastrous launch of HealthCare.Gov. To mark the occasion, I'm dusting off this post from last December.
There were a lot of numbers tossed around in today's big HealthCare.Gov enrollment news, but I want to focus on just one number in particular:
600,000.
Six hundred thousand people actively enrolled in private healthcare policies on Tuesday, December 15, 2015 by using HealthCare.Gov.
Forget about the cumulative total for a moment. Forget about the auto-renewals still to be added. Forget about the state-based exchanges. Just focus on the fact that in a single 24-hour period, 600,000 people signed up through the federal exchange site only.
Now think back to October 2013, when HC.gov and 17 state-based exchange websites launched...and, for the most part, immediately crashed and burned.
BOISE, Idaho – Since Open Enrollment began on November 1, over 93,000 Idahoans have selected a health insurance plan for 2016 through Your Health Idaho. Approximately 86,000 Idahoans are currently enrolled for 2015 coverage.
“We are pleased to see an increase in enrollments at this half-way mark,” said Your Health Idaho executive director, Pat Kelly. “This demonstrates there is a continued need for access to affordable healthcare in Idaho. The good news is that Idahoans who remain uninsured still have until January 31 to enroll for health and dental coverage. But we encourage people to act now.” Idahoans who complete an application between now and January 31 will have coverage as early as February.
Idahoans who need assistance picking a health insurance plan can find a local agent or broker in their community to help them free of charge by visiting www.YourHealthIdaho.org and clicking on “find help near you.”
Remember that HC.gov generally represents about 3/4 of national enrollments, so for Wednesday and Thursday, I assumed around 300K active selections per day for the federal exchange.
OK, this is a bit of a downer on an otherwise extremely positive day, but given my recent obsession with trying to track down the number of people still currently enrolled in effectuated policies for 2015, it seems worth making note of.
Remember, the official exchange effectuation figure as of 6/30/15 was 9.95 million people.
Back in early November, I cobbled together the effectuated enrollment data from 8 different state-based exchanges, and concluded that the numbers stayed relatively from the end of June through the end of September. With Massachusetts included, the numbers were actually higher, and even without MA included (special case) it was only down a nominal amount. With only 8 states representing a small percentage of the national population, however, there was no way of knowing how representative this was.
Just to clarify, I fully realize that Disney/LucasFilm would've had to agree to such an official ad campaign.
I'm assuming that it's OK for me to do this under parody/fair use.
Images will be removed if requested. Please don't sue.
