...and various reporters will breathlessly report about how this is 20% lower than the same third week during last year's Open Enrollment Period, and OMG THIS MEANS OBAMACARE IS FAILING!!!
Yep, it's true: Last year, during the third week of Open Enrollment, 618,548 people selected QHPs via the federal exchange (HealthCare.Gov). This year, I'm pretty sure that right around 500,000 people selected QHPs during the third week.
However, here's what you have to keep in mind: The first week was 17% higher this year than last (543K vs. 462K). The second week was a whopping 77% higher than last year! (535K vs. 303K).
Why the massive discrepancies? Simple: The calendar. Last year, Open Enrollment started on November 15th. The second week was also Thanksgiving week, which meant that enrollments dropped off to practically zilch for that Thursday and Friday.
This year, Open Enrollment started 2 weeks earlier, on November 1st. That means two important differences:
U.S. adults are slightly more likely to say it is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure all Americans have health insurance coverage (51%) than to say it is not the government's responsibility (47%). The percentage who believe the government has that obligation is up six percentage points from 2014. This year marks the first time since 2008 that a majority of Americans say the government is responsible for making sure all citizens have health insurance.
In short: UHC sat out the ACA exchanges in 2014, dove into half the states head first for 2015, expanded into another 11 states for 2016...but then suddenly announced that they "may" drop out of the exchanges completely in 2017? Furthermore, they made this announcement a month after painting a glowing outlook in their official quarterly report and did so in the middle of the 2016 open enrollment period? Something doesn't sound right here.
Over at Inside Health Policy, Amy Lotven takes a deeper look at one part of last week's UnitedHealthcare announcement which slipped by a lot of people:
United Notes Customer Churn As It Mulls Exiting Exchanges
...United in a Thursday morning call said it is seeing a high number of people who are purchasing exchange plans, receiving services, and then dropping their policies. Aetna, which last month announced it would scale back its offerings in 2016, also recently said is has seen an increased number of enrollees coming in and out of the exchange, especially through the special enrollment periods.
...Aetna Chief Financial Officer Shawn Guertin made similar comments in a Nov. 10 investors meeting at Credit Suisse. The phenomena that really we're seeing now is a lot more people coming in and out of the system, and in particular people coming in during a Special Enrollment Period and then staying for only a few months and dropping, is really part of what's draining the system, Guertin said.
U.S. health insurers Aetna Inc and Anthem Inc on Friday sought to reassure investors that their Obamacare businesses had not worsened after UnitedHealth Group Inc warned of mounting losses in that sector.
Aetna and Anthem said their individual insurance businesses, which include the plans created by President Barack Obama's national healthcare reform law, had performed in line with projections through October. Both backed their earnings forecasts for 2015.
Much is being written about What This Means for Democrats Next Year®, blah blah blah. The reality is, as happy as I am about the outcome (sort of the Yang to the recent Yin in Kentucky), most of the specifics of the Louisiana results probably don't mean much nationally. As Matthew Yglesias notes at Vox this morning:
Louisiana was a perfect storm
A number of different factors came together to power Edwards' win. One is that Edwards, as a former Army Ranger with deep family ties to Louisiana state politics, had the right kind of biography to win in a red state. The other is that Vitter's rather unusual history with paid sex gave him the wrong kind of biography to win in any state. Add on to that the fact that the Louisiana Republican Party is divided and factionalized and the GOP has a firm grip on the state legislature, so some Republicans aren't exactly weeping to see Vitter lose.
Last but by no means least, the Louisiana economy is suffering from the global trend toward cheaper oil in a way that naturally helps challengers.
Given the one-two punch in the same 24-hour period, I titled the second entry "Has the Great Insurance Broker Purge begun?"
I was being partly tongue-in-cheek, but it appears that the answer to that question is, in fact, "Yep."
Insurance broker Josh Dickerson, who also gave me the heads up re. UnitedHealthcare and Phoenix, just forwarded a third "your services are no longer needed" letter from HealthSpan (an Ohio-based carrier) to their broker network...and this one has a slight twist:
Just a few hours ago, I was amused to note that HealthCare.Gov took my advice by adding a short explanatory message to one of the first screens you see on the window shopping tool. While a seemingly tiny thing, this one simple improvement could potentially increase 2016 enrollments by a few thousand people (or, at the very least, make the process slightly less annoying for many more).
Anyway, that alone would've been enough to make my day...but then, just moments ago, the CMS division sent out the following list of Proposed Improvements for the 2017 Marketplace (ie, for next year):
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today issued the proposed annual Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2017, governing participation in the Health Insurance Marketplaces. The proposed rule seeks comment on proposals that will provide continued choice and competition for consumers, and a vibrant and growing market for affordable, quality health plans. The proposed rule seeks to improve the consumer experience, both when individuals shop for health insurance and when they use it.
Late last night I posted a quick walk-thru of the all-new 2016 HealthCare.Gov Window Shopping tool. For the most part, it's a major improvement over the 2015 version (which itself was, of course, a massive improvement over the buggy, 78-screen original version launched for 2014 open enrollment).
However, there are a few improvements which can always be made, and for me, one of the biggest ones is right at the beginning. Immediately after entering your Zip Code, the very first question which pops up is "Are you enrolled in a 2015 Marketplace health plan?"
Aside from the fact that some people may not even know whether or not their current plan is "through" the ACA healthcare exchange or not ("Marketplace" is a pretty generic term, after all...) the problem is that if you choose "Yes", here's what pops up:
Date: November 19, 2015
From: Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
Subject: Risk Corridors Payments for the 2014 Benefit Year
On October 1, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that for the first year of the three year risk corridors program, qualified health plan (QHP) issuers will pay charges of approximately $362 million, and QHP issuers have requested $2.87 billion of 2014 payments, based on current data for the 2014 benefit year. 1 Consistent with prior guidance, assuming full collections of risk corridors charges for the 2014 benefit year, insurers will be paid an amount that reflects a proration rate of 12.6% of their 2014 benefit year risk corridors payment requests.2 The remaining 2014 risk corridors payments will be made from 2015 risk corridors collections, and if necessary, 2016 collections.
