As I warned back on December 19th when CMS released the Week 7 HealthCare.Gov Enrollment Snapshot Report, the final, official enrollment tally for the 2019 Open Enrollment Period was almost certain to end up slightly lower than the Week 7 cumulative numbers indicated. There are several reasons for this: Some people who were auto-renewed contact HC.gov to cancel their 2019 renewals, while others had their enrollments involuntarily denied or otherwise cancelled due to problems with verifying their identity, address or legal residency status.
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Rhode Islanders have just a few hours left to obtain health insurance through the state.
The deadline to sign up for and renew coverage for 2019 is Monday, Dec. 31.
The state's health insurance marketplace, HealthSource RI, plans to keep its call and walk-in center open until 7 p.m. Monday.
The center is located at 401 Wampanoag Trail in East Providence and the hotline is 1-855-840-4774.
Rhode Islanders have until midnight Monday to sign up for coverage online through HealthSource RI's website.
"Enrollment is up from last year, which we're very excited about, so that to us is a sign that the ACA is working in Rhode Island, and everybody is understanding the value of having health coverage," HealthSource RI COO Meg Ivatts said.
Now that I've brought everyone up to speed about my disappearing act, it's time to delve back into the ACA & healthcare developments of the past few weeks. There've been quite a few to talk about, but for now I'll just focus on updating the OE6 enrollment books a bit...starting with one of the two states which, until now, hasn't provided any 2019 enrollment data: Idaho.
As I noted a few weeks ago, this is the first time I've gone without posting any updates to the site for more than a few days since I launched this project over five years ago. Obviously a tremendous amount has happened since I went off the grid--some good, some bad--and there's no way I can catch up with all of it, but I'll try and recap a few of the developments most relevant to the ACASignups.net readership in my next post.
Before that, though, I'm sure all of you (well, some of you...ok, perhaps one or two of you?) are wondering where I was, so lemme start with that.
Unlike Islam and Mecca, there's no specific commandment under Jewish law which states that every Jew must visit Israel at least once in their lifetimes. Most Jews, however, do want to visit Israel at least once, and it's something which has been on my Bucket List since I was a kid. The day my wife and I found out she was pregnant, we decided right then and there that we were going to take our son on a family trip to Israel for his Bar Mitzvah.
SNAP recipients and parents of children with Medicaid coverage can use three-question application until January 4
The new coverage is available to men and women ages 19 through 64 who are not eligible for Medicare and who meet income requirements, which vary by family size. For example, a single adult with an annual income at or below $16,754 may be eligible for coverage. An adult in a three-person family with a total household annual income at or below $28,677 may be eligible.
SNAP recipients and parents whose children are currently receiving Medicaid coverage have the opportunity to use a short-form application to sign up if they do so by January 4, 2019. These individuals were notified by letter earlier this fall, and a follow-up postcard was recently mailed to potentially eligible adults in these categories.
In the five-plus years that I've been running this website, I've never gone for more than a few days without an update.
However, starting Saturday the 22nd, I'll be mostly offline for two weeks. I might post a tweet or two if there's a really important development (gee, what are the odds of that?), but don't expect any blog updates from then through the first week of January.
Happy holidays, season's greetings, and I'll see everyone on the flip side!
OK, with the big Week 7 HC.gov Report having been released, I can now fill in most of the blanks for the 2019 Open Enrollment Period: A grand total of 11.16 million QHP selections nationally so far. That includes 8.45 million on the federal exchange, plus another 2.7 million on the 12 state-based exchanges. If the counting were to stop right here, the total would be almost exactly 5% lower than last year, which would actually be pretty good all things considered.
That figures...after waiting for this report to be released for like 3 hours earlier today, it just figures that it would be released right after I had to go pick my kid up from school...updating post as quickly as possible...refresh for updates...
NOTE: Last year CMS modified the official QHP selection total downwards by around 79,000 enrollees the week after the Week 7 report was released for various reason, mostly due to people making last-minute cancellations to their renewals or having their enrollment applications denied due to problems with legal residency verification or other data matching problems.
Limited Time Special Enrollment Period for 2019 Coverage
Posted on: December 17, 2018
Did you hit a snag trying to enroll in 2019 coverage during open enrollment? The Health Benefit Exchange is offering a special enrollment for individuals who were not able to enroll before the end of Open Enrollment.
You still have the chance to enroll in 2019 coverage
In light of this year’s shortened open enrollment period along with other barriers, you still have the chance to enroll in 2019 coverage. If you were unable to select a plan before the close of open enrollment and you would like to enroll in a 2019 plan, contact Customer Support (1-855-923-4633) no later than December 20, 2018! Once you have contacted Customer Support, you will have until December 28, 2018 to select a plan. Plans will still be effective on January 1, 2019.
Earlier today, no fewer than six of the state-based exchanges released their latest numbers: Official 2019 Open Enrollment totals through December 15th. In two cases (Maryland and Washington State), this also counts as their final tally, although the final number may increase slightly more as a few hundred "in line by midnight" enrollees are tacked on.
The other four states (Colorado, Minnesota, Massachusetts and New York) gave what amounts to a "mid-season report", since all four still have anywhere from four to six weeks left for people to #GetCovered.
Missing from today's updates were final (or any) numbers for Idaho or Vermont, both of which also closed up shop on Saturday (Vermont is still letting a handful of people who had problems enrolling sign up for another few days, but this will likely amount to only a few hundred at most given the tiny population of the state). Also missing were more recent updates for California, Connecticut, DC or Rhode Island.
