Well, this isn't exactly a positive article, but more enrollments are more enrollments...this brings Hawaii up about 700 people since the previous update.
The Connector had enrolled more than 5,000 people as of Friday, according to interim Executive Director Tom Matsuda. However, more than 18,000 applications have been processed as of Feb. 15.
Hawaii's private QHP enrollments continue to crawl along, increasing from 3,879 as of 2/08 to 4,297 as of 2/15.
Total since October 1, 2013
18,752 Applications completed in the Individual Marketplace
4,297 Enrollments in the Individual Marketplace
444 Employers applied to SHOP Marketplace
They also list the number of employers enrolled in their SHOP system, but there's no update on the actual number of people covered by those plans, so it stays at 307. No Medicaid/CHIP update either.
The good news is that Hawaii becomes the first state of the 11 for which I have partial February data to actually increase it's enrollment rate over January. The bad news is, Hawaii's numbers are so tiny that this is a drop in the bucket, only reducing the overall drop percentage by 0.2%.
Nothing to get excited about here, folks: Hawaii, with one of the most screwed-up exchanges (although also, in their defense, one of the lowest uninsured rates on the country to begin with) has added a whopping...488 people to their Private QHP roles since January 18. Still, a person covered is a person covered...no Medicaid update, however.
This is one of those cases where percentages mask the real picture. Yes, Hawaii has seen their Private QHP enrollments increase by an impressive 43% since December 28. However, they only had 2,192 people enrolled in the first place...the actual increase is only 934 people, to 3,126.
Furthermore, those 934 have to be subtracted from the almost half-million "Not Broken Out By State" tally at the top of the spreadsheet, since they came in before 1/24/14.
On the other hand, this also gives the first SHOP (Small Business Exchange) entry for Hawaii...another 307 people.
Hey, a person is a person...
As of Jan. 18 the Connector enrolled 3,126 people, though 13,000 applicants were deemed eligible for tax credits to reduce the cost of coverage. Of the 373 small-business groups that applied, only 75 employers were enrolled with 307 workers selecting plans.
