HARTFORD, CT — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont has much lower expectations for what he’s going to be able to do to improve the health of Connecticut residents than one might expect from a Democratic candidate this year.
Sounds like Lamont would not push for CT to reinstate the ACA individual mandate penalty:
...Does he believe everyone in Connecticut has to purchase health insurance now that it’s not mandated by the federal government?
Connecticut’s House of Representatives voted Wednesday to strengthen state health insurance laws by making sure residents with pre-existing conditions are protected.
House Bill 5521 passed unanimously by a 146-0 vote, and now goes to the Senate.
This was actually released a month ago, but I was a bit preoccupied with my kid's Bar Mitzvah at the time (he did great, by the way, thanks for asking!).
Access Health CT, Connecticut's state-based ACA exchange, released their 2019 Open Enrollment Period report, and it's one of the most extensively detailed & granual looks at the year's enrollment data. They've included the normal stuff, of course (subsidized vs. unsubsidized, metal levels, age and income brackets, etc)...but they've also done a very deep dive into data points I haven't seen before by cross-indexing categories.
For instance, not only did they break out "enrollment attrition reasons" (that is, why 2018 enrollees who didn't renew their policies chose not to), but they actually broke that out into what those enrollees' financial assistance status was.
The level of detail here is pretty impressive and somewhat overwhelming (there's 25 pages of charts & graphs), but if you're a healthcare nerd interested in what's going on in the Nutmeg State, knock yourself out!
Connecticut lawmakers are joining other states that have unveiled proposals to expand government-run health coverage, with plans to extend state health benefits to small businesses and nonprofits, and to explore a public option for individuals.
Under two measures announced Thursday, officials would open the state health plan to nonprofits and small companies – those with 50 or fewer employees – and form an advisory council to guide the development of a public option. The legislation would allow the state to create a program, dubbed “ConnectHealth,” that offers low-cost coverage to people who don’t have employer-sponsored insurance.
Livetweets from the Access Health CT monthly board meeting. It's important to note that the Connecticut ACA exchange originally was going to stick with the "official" 2019 Open Enrollment deadline of December 15th, but after the horribly-timed judicial ruling in the #TexasFoldEm federal lawsuit, decided to bump their 2019 enrollment deadline out by an extra month after all:
With the clock ticking, Access Health CT’s latest statistics show they are closing in on last year’s numbers.
As of Friday afternoon there are now 109,126 Connecticut residents enrolled in insurance plans through the exchange. The deadline for enrolling was extended to Jan. 15.
Last year 114,000 Connecticut residents enrolled in plans sold on the exchange.
CT is just over 5,000 signups shy of last year's 114,134 QHP selection total. They probably added a couple hundred more over the weekend (weekends are always slower anyway), but the odds of matching last year's total by tomorrow (Tuesday) night are extremely slim. My guess is they'll end up between 110K - 111K.
Covered California’s Iconic Bus Tour Rolls into San Francisco to Promote Health Insurance Enrollment Ahead of Final Deadline
Covered California’s bus tour promotes enrollment and encourages consumers to see if they are eligible for financial help in obtaining quality health insurance.
The San Francisco visit coincides with the release of Governor Gavin Newsom’s budget which focuses on making health care more affordable through increased financial help and a state individual shared responsibility provision.
Consumers have through Jan. 15 to sign up and select a plan, through Covered California or directly with health plans, for Feb. 1 coverage.
An estimated 1.1 million uninsured Californians are eligible to enroll in Covered California and research shows that 82 percent of uninsured consumers surveyed, who are eligible for financial assistance, do not know that they qualify.
When I last checked on Access Health CT, Connecticut's ACA exchange, their 2019 Open Enrollment Period tally was about 10% short of their final number from 2018, by around 11,700 people. However, they still had a solid month left to make up the gap, with the enrollment deadline extended out until January 15th, 2019.
CT still has another week to go, but I just received a partial update, as of January 4th.
That's a net increase of 6,286 QHP selections between 12/15/18 - 1/04/19, or around 300 per day on average. At that rate, they'd add around 3,300 more by the final 1/15 deadline, putting them 112,000...still around 2,100 shy of last year. On the other hand, that timeframe included both Christmas and New Year's Eve, when enrollment tends to drop through the floor, so there's still a chance of Access Health CT at least matching 2018, though exceeding the 114,134 tally would be a pretty tall order at this point.
So, it's over, right? Well...not quite. The 2019 ACA Open Enrollment Period officially ended last night...but only in 43 states. In the remaining seven (+DC), Open Enrollment hasn't ended yet. 2019 ACA Open Enrollment is still ongoing for nearly 10% of the population!
In Massachusetts, open enrollment runs through Jan. 23rd, 2019 for coverage starting February 1st
In the District of Columbia and New York, open enrollment runs through Jan. 31st for coverage starting March 1st
Connecticut was originally supposed to end their 2019 Open Enrollment Period on Saturday, December 15th along with most other states. However, on Saturday afternoon, just hours before the midnight deadline, they announced that they were bumping out the final deadline by a full month, through January 15th, to coincide with California and Colorado. This was done mostly in response to the mass confusion and fear which spread rapidly on Friday night and all day Saturday as people heard about the ruling in the #TexasFoldEm lawsuit.
As of Friday, the day of the Texas court ruling and one day before the original enrollment deadline, Access Health was reporting 102,412 enrollees in non-Medicaid health plans offered on the exchange.
