Forbes' Avik Roy and I butted heads last week on Twitter regarding the "How many enrollees were previously uninsured???" issue, and with it, the McKinsey study which claimed that only 11% (in January) or 27% (in February) of the QHP total were previously uninsured.

In a nutshell, I never said that McKinsey's 27% claim was wrong, I just said that the methodology they used to come up with 27% didn't tell us anything about the previously uninsured percent of exchange QHPs because McKinsey mixed together both exchange and off-exchange enrollments...without noting how many of their respondents came from each pool. Since we have no idea how many off-exchange enrollments there are, and we don't know how many of the respondents came from either pool anyway, there's no way of knowing how much of that 27% comes from either. It could be 0% and 54%. It could be 54% and 0%. It could, in theory, be 100% of one and 0% of the other.

One final update for today, just under the wire: Kentucky reports that QHPs are up to 66K, Medicaid up to 266.4K. That's an increase of 1,509 QHPs and 8,911 Medicaid enrollments in 4 days. A slight slowdown from last week, but March is still well above 2x February's rate.

In KY, 49% of those enrolled in #kynect are under the age of 35: 266,388 have qualified 4 Medicaid; and 65,964 purchased private insurance.

— kynectky (@kynectky) March 25, 2014

 

A huge turnaround from last week, when it looked like WA was starting to slow down. Exchange QHPs are up from 112,225 as of 3/13 to 125,207 as of 3/23...an increase of 12,982 in 10 days (not quite the "past week" described in the press release, unless it took the first 3 days for 901 of them to go through).

The impact on the projection chart is equally dramatic: Washington State has now gone from running 37% below February's daily average to 25% higher than February did.

On the Medicaid side, new enrollments now stand at 250K "strict expansion" and 130K "woodworkers", up from 235K & 122K respectively, for a total increase of 23,000 new enrollees.

Lots of numbers here, but only one of any relevance here: 5,744 QHPs as of 3/22.

At just 350 higher than the 5,394 from 3/17, this is a bit of a slowdown from the first 2 weeks of March. Fortunately the HI numbers are too small to negatively impact the projection to any visible degree.

Total for the period of Mar. 16, 2014 through Mar. 22, 2014

  • 7 Certified Kōkua or In-Person Assisters
  • 2 Certified Kōkua or Certified Application Counselors (CACs)
  • 11,216 Unique Visitors to HawaiiHealthConnector.com
  • 2,997 Calls received by our Customer Support Center

Total since October 1, 2013

I just got back from taping my first TV interview appearance. Details to follow. Meanwhile, while I was gone, apparently the following happened:

--an update from Hawaii

--even HIGHER numbers from Connecticut (I started to post about this just before I had to leave, haven't finished writeup

--Washington State apparently released some VERY big numbers, a complete reversal from last week, which saw enrollments slowing

--Harry Reid stated that the final number of exchange-based QHPs will be between 6.5M - 7.0M

However, now I have to have dinner with my family. Will try and update all this stuff tonight...

Earlier today I posted CT's QHP total as "at least 65K", but didn't have an exact figure.

This new article lists the combined total (QHPs/Medicaid) as 170K.

Kevin Counihan says that Access Health CT now has a goal of signing up 185,000 individuals for health insurance by March 31. The exchange originally hoped to sign up 100,000 people but has already enrolled 170,021 individuals in private insurance and Medicaid plans.

UPDATE: HOLD THE PHONE...This just in from Access Health CT's Twitter feed:

RT @AccessHealthCT Our Grand Total is already over 174,000 Blowing way past our orginal goal. #EnrollCT -kc

— Tonya Wiley (@changetospare) March 25, 2014

Thank you to new contributor JTP for this CNBC article, which finally brings some clarity to the "how many already had insurance?" question.

Until now, the only hard numbers available were from New York and Kentucky, which were reporting 70% and 75% of all enrollees as not already having insurance respectively. However, these numbers included both exchange QHPs and Medicaid enrollees, which made it difficult to parse what percent of QHP enrollees only didn't have insurance prior to their enrollment.

This article is more specific: The number for NY QHPs is 59% of QHP enrollees (vs. 90% of Medicaid), and in KY is, surprisingly higher, at 75% for each!

Contributor deaconblues brings a very nice find. Massachusetts continues to be one hell of a mess, but this latest official briefing helps bring some clarity to the situation, while raising some more questions. Rather than restate it all myself, here's deaconblues summary, and the chart in question:

Yesterday, in response to a partially-reasonable, partially-not critique, I added something to The Graph: A prominent note that no, neither the spreadsheet nor the graph take into account the estimated 4.8 million non-compliant policies which were cancelled last fall (my own included). I concluded my response with the following:

However, you've [the commentor] chosen to completely ignore the single largest missing piece of the puzzle here, which I've discussed many, many times: OFF-EXCHANGE QHP ENROLLMENTS.

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