YES, I KNOW ABOUT THE BIG CMS OFF-SEASON QHP REPORT released a couple of hours ago, and I'll be posting about that next, but I just got back from an end-of-summer camp carnival thing with my kid, and want to make sure I get Massachusetts crossed off the list first.

The Massachusetts Health Connector just held their monthly board meeting this morning, and have released the July dashboard report with a whole mess of demographic data for Baystate-obsessed nerds to revel in.

I've pasted screen shots of every page of the report below (and there's a link to the PDF version above), but here's the main takeaways:

• Effectuated QHPs have reached 170.5K...a whopping 45,161 higher than at the end of Open Enrollment!

While the national effectuation number is likely only 2% or so higher today than it was in March (likely 10.4 million vs. 10.2 million), in Massachusetts it's 36% higher. There's two main reasons for this, both connected to "ConnectorCare", which is unique to Massachusetts. ConnectorCare consists of the same low-end Qualified Health Plans that anyone can purchase (ie, they're still counted as QHPs in the national tally), except that in addition to the federal Advanced Premium Tax Credits (APTC), enrollees in ConnectorCare also receive additional state-based financial assistance, making them even more attractive to enrollees. In addition, however, unlike "normal" APTC or Full Price QHPs, which are limited to the official open enrollment period for most people, ConnectorCare enrollment, like Medicaid/CHIP, is open year round. That makes a dramatic difference, as you can see below; over 85% of the net QHP enrollment increase since March is thanks to ConnectorCare additions.

• In addition, MA is the only state I know of which actively reports their attrition numbers--that is, so far this year they've had just 16,631 people drop their QHP policies, meaning a total of 187,194 people have selected a plan and paid at least their first monthly premium.
• Assuming a 90% payment rate (confirmed for Massachusetts back in April), this also suggests that the cumulative QHP selection total should be roughly 208,000 people to date, which is only significant to me and The Graph.

But wait, there's more! Look below and you'll see a whole mess of pie charts, bar charts and line charts, breaking out everything from Metal Level selections and Market Share by Provider to SHOP enrollments (5,302 lives covered as of August 1st) and even Dental Plans!

Data nerds, go nuts!!

Minnesota's troubled MNsure exchange continues to quietly roll along through the off-season...

Cumulative QHP selections are up 1,093 since July 14 (42 per day), 2,937 since June 14 (52 per day), 5,059 since May 14 (58 per day) and 9,355 since the end of Open Enrollment on 2/21/15...or about 55 per day). Things have gradually slowed during the off-season, but not by much.

In just the last month they've also beefed up their Medicaid enrollment tally by over 16,800 and added 3,800 more to MinnesotaCare.

This report also gives some important additional stats, such as:

IMPORTANT: See this detailed explanation of how I've come up with the following estimated maximum requested weighted average rate increases for this state.

As explained in the first link above, I've still been able to piece together rough estimates of the low, mid-range and maximum possible requested average rate increase for the Arkansas individual market. Note: While the table & methodology for Arkansas are the same as most of the other states I've posted on, there's one important difference here; see below for details:

Again, the full explanation is included here.

Today's the aniversary of my dad passing away. He was an Osteopathic physician, so today's Big News® would make him very happy, but I have to keep things short today so just a quick write-up:

The Centers for DIsease Control just released their latest big insurance coverage survey.

As I noted when CDC released the full-year 2014 NHIS back in June (which covered the full calendar year 2014):

• HHS announces an additional $169 million in Affordable Care Act funding to 266 community health centers

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced today $169 million in Affordable Care Act funding to 266 new health center sites in 46 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico for the delivery of comprehensive primary health care services in communities that need them most. These new health center sites are projected to increase access to health care services for over 1.2 million patients. These awards build on the $101 million awarded to 164 new health center sites in May 2015.

IMPORTANT: See this detailed explanation of how I've come up with the following estimated maximum requested weighted average rate increases for this state.

As explained in the first link above, I've still been able to piece together rough estimates of the maximum possible and mid-range requested average rate increase for the Ohio individual market:

Again, the full explanation is included here, but to the best of my knowledge, it looks like the companies with rate increases higher than 10% come in at a weighted 15.5% increase, but only make up about 28% of the total ACA-compliant individual market, with several other companies with requested increases of less than 10% (decreases in some cases) making up the other 72%.

Last week I reported that insurance companies offering individual healthcare policies in New Mexico were asking for some pretty ugly rate hikes (on a percentage basis, anyway), mainly due to Blue Cross Blue Shield of NM (aka "Health Care Services Corp.") putting in for a jaw-dropping 57% hike. This resulted in 30% overall requested increases when weighted by market share.

Then, a few days later, the New Mexico state insurance commissioner announced the approved rate hikes for all 5 (or is it 6? see below...) of the companies in question. For BCBSNM (aka HCSC), they lopped the 57% hike down massively:

IMPORTANT: See this detailed explanation of how I've come up with the following estimated maximum requested weighted average rate increases for this state.

As explained in the first link above, I've still been able to piece together rough estimates of the maximum possible and mid-range requested average rate increase for the Georgia individual market:

Again, the full explanation is included here, but to the best of my knowledge, it looks like the companies with rate increases higher than 10% come in at a weighted 18.3% increase, but only make up about 29% of the total ACA-compliant individual market, with several other companies with requested increases of less than 10% (decreases in some cases) making up the other 71%.

• Alabama House approves large cut to Medicaid program

The Alabama House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly approved a deep cut to the state's Medicaid program as lawmakers continue to deadlock on a solution to the budget shortfall.

The budget cut came out of frustration over the stalemate and is largely seen as a way to build pressure on lawmakers to find some sort of compromise. But opponents called it a dangerous gamble with the health care of the state's most vulnerable people.

• The next big push: Getting people health care, not just insurance

Rebecca Santiago clutched a stack of papers about Obamacare and chatted up strangers at the health fair, set up on a Hartford street within view of two homeless shelters. She wanted to know if they had health insurance and, perhaps more importantly, if they’d used it.

One was Darin Zollarcoffer, 48. He had coverage, but no primary care doctor.

“Why not?” Santiago asked.

IMPORTANT: See this detailed explanation of how I've come up with the following estimated maximum requested weighted average rate increases for this state.

As explained in the first link above, I've still been able to piece together rough estimates of the maximum possible and mid-range requested average rate increase for the North Carolina individual market:

BCBS of NC had previously requested an already-ugly 25.7% average rate hike, but has now asked to bump that up even more, to 34.6% overall.