Earlier this week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that they had approved Missouri's plan to take advantage of the Biden administration's Maternal Health Blueprint (made possible by the American Rescue Plan & Consolidated Appropriations Act) to extend postpartum Medicaid/CHIP coverage to a full 12 month period:

As a result of today’s announcement, up to an additional 18,000 people in Missouri will be eligible for Medicaid for a full year after pregnancy. Medicaid covers 41% of all births in the nation and more than half of all children in the country. With the approval of Missouri’s plan, an estimated 641,000 Americans across 40 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands now have access to extended postpartum coverage. If all states adopted this option, as many as 720,000 people across the United States would be guaranteed Medicaid and CHIP coverage for 12 months after pregnancy.

via NY State of Health:

• Health Insurance Scams Related to Renewals Are Increasing

• Health Commissioner and Attorney General Offer Tips to Avoid Scams

ALBANY, NY. (November 16, 2023) State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald and Attorney General Letitia James today cautioned New Yorkers about health insurance enrollment scams as 2024 enrollment through the NY State of Health is set to begin on November 16.

The NY State of Health, New York’s Health Plan Marketplace, offers one-stop health insurance shopping for both public health programs, Medicaid, Child Health Plus, and the Essential Plan, and commercial health insurance, Qualified Health Plans. Earlier this year, after the pandemic’s continuous coverage rules expired, New York State resumed the practice of reviewing and renewing eligibility for those enrolled in the public health programs. Health insurance scams regarding these renewals are increasing.

Well, it's not much, but we have our first official 2024 ACA Open Enrollment Period enrollment report, out of Connecticut:

Via Access Health CT's News/Press Releases page:

Stats as of November 17, 2023

Qualified Health Plans (QHP):

• QHP Enrollment In 2023 Coverage: 19,145
• 2024 OE Acquisition Summary: 4,958

Medicaid:

• Completed applications/redeterminations processed through the integrated eligibility system: 10,656

It's my understanding that "Acquisition Summary" refers to CT residents who are brand-new enrollees (never enrolled via the exchange before).

The report was posted this morning so it obviously only includes enrollment data through yesterday (Nov. 16th).

It's worth noting that last year, Access Health CT reported enrolling 17,879 people through Nov. 17th (one extra day since Nov. 1st fell on a Tuesday last year).

Every year I seem to forget that New York State of Health launches their annual ACA Open Enrollment Period two weeks later than every other state for some reason...

• New Yorkers Who Enroll by December 15 Will Have Health Insurance in Place for January 1

• Enhanced Health Insurance Premium Tax Credits Remain Available in 2024

• NY State of Health Makes Available Certified Enrollment Assistors to Offer Free Help, Plan Comparisons , and Cost Estimates to Consumers Across the State

ALBANY, NY. (November 16, 2023) – NY State of Health, the state’s Official Health Plan Marketplace, today announced the beginning of its eleventh annual open enrollment period for health insurance. New Yorkers shopping for coverage through the Marketplace are offered a wide selection of high-quality comprehensive health plans, with the support of certified enrollment assistors to guide them through the enrollment process, establish eligibility, and determine any potential financial assistance. Beginning today, consumers have until December 15, 2023, to renew or enroll in a Qualified Health Plan for health insurance starting January 1, 2024.

BeWell NM, New Mexico's state-based ACA exchange, has launched a very handy new Enrollment Data portal which includes plenty of info for a data hound like myself to pore over. The initial 2024 Open Enrollment Period numbers are impressive...but also a bit misleading if you don't know how the exchange enters data.

First, the top line numbers (as of 11/15/23):

• Number of enrolled consumers: 45,496
• Consumers enrolled in Medical coverage: 44,917
• Consumers enrolled in Dental coverage: 10,759

While dental coverage is also important, standalone dental plans aren't considered Qualified Health Plans (QHPs); it's the "Medical Coverage" which is the key number here.

Also, the total number above may look confusing, but most of the Medical & Dental coverage enrollees overlap:

via Connect for Health Colorado:

First Two Weeks of Open Enrollment Spell Early Success for Colorado’s Health Insurance Marketplace

• Sign-ups are 27 percent higher than last year, and more people are qualifying for financial help

DENVER— Open Enrollment for 2024 health insurance coverage started just two weeks ago, and Connect for Health Colorado reports that enrollments are up 27 percent from last year. Currently, more than 36,500 individuals have signed up for a health insurance plan through its marketplace, and 82 percent of those people are qualifying for financial help.

The Affordable Care Act includes a long list of codified instructions about what's required under the law. However, like any major piece of legislation, many of the specific details are left up to the agency responsible for implementing the law.

While the PPACA is itself a lengthy document, it would have to be several times longer yet in order to cover every conceivable detail involved in operating the ACA exchanges, Medicaid expansion and so forth. The major provisions of the ACA fall under the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), and within that, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS)

Every year, CMS issues a long, wonky document called the Notice of Benefit & Payment Parameters (NBPP) for the Affordable Care Act. This is basically a list of proposed tweaks to some of the specifics of how the ACA is actually implemented for the following year (actually, it's the year after the following year, since the final rule is generally released in mid-December).

For example, here's what the actual PPACA legislative text itself said about the annual Open Enrollment Period (OEP):

Some guy, November 5th, 2023:

Back in April, the Associated Press reported that the Biden Administration planned on opening up eligibility for ACA exchange, Basic Health Program, Medicaid & CHIP coverage to hundreds of thousands of Americans who have Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals status:

President Joe Biden is set to announce that his administration is expanding eligibility for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the matter.

Oh wow...this is a blast from the past. I'm gonna have to essentially repost much of a blog entry from August 2018 to provide the backstory:

[In 2017], Virginia residents experienced massive amounts of heartburn and ulcers as two major insurance carriers, Optima (Sentara Health) and Anthem (HealthKeepers) played musical chairs with both their 2018 rate filings and which areas of the state they offered plans on.

In May 2017, things didn't look too bad: Both Anthem and Optima were available in fairly large chunks of the state, and while Anthem wanted to raise rates an ugly 38% on average, Optima was only looking to increase rates by around 10-11%.

Ten years ago, during the very first ACA Open Enrollment Period, Oregon was one of 15 states which attempted to operate their own fully state-based marketplace SBM) under the new law, calling it "Cover Oregon."

Cover Oregon was, along with several of the other original SBMs in Nevada, Maryland, Hawaii and (surprisingly) Massachusetts, a complete and utter failure. They flushed a stunning $248 million down the drain on a website portal which, put simply...didn't work. Like, at all. From April 2014:

Cover Oregon poised to switch to federal insurance exchange

Alex Pettit, the state's top information-technology official, recommended Cover Oregon move to the federal exchange at an advisory committee meeting Thursday.

Oregon should pull the plug on the beleaguered Cover Oregon health insurance exchange and switch to the federal exchange, a technological advisory committee recommended Thursday.

The move is considered almost certain to be adopted by the Cover Oregon board, which meets Friday.