Maryland

Now that's a last-minute extension...

MARYLAND HEALTH CONNECTION ALLOWING PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEGUN ENROLLMENT APPLICATIONS TO COMPLETE THEM UNTIL FEB. 28

BALTIMORE (Feb. 15, 2015) — Due to high demand during this final weekend of open enrollment for 2015, Maryland Health Connection is allowing people to complete their enrollments until Feb. 28, 2015. Marylanders need to have started an enrollment application at MarylandHealthConnection.gov or have contacted the call center at 855-642-8572 before midnight Sunday, Feb. 15 to be able to complete the process by Feb. 28.

After midnight Sunday, MarylandHealthConnection.gov will include the message: "Open enrollment for 2015 has ended. If you began to enroll by the February 15 deadline but were not successful, please check the box below and you may go ahead and complete your enrollment. You must finish your enrollment no later than February 28. … [ ] I started an application or called the call center to enroll by the February 15 deadline but was not able to complete my enrollment.”

This is something of an exclusive: I've received official notice from the Maryland Health Connection exchange that as of last night, their enrollment totals stood at:

  • 107,586 QHP selections
  • 132,392 Medicaid/CHIP enrollees
  • 239,978  Total

How's this compare vs. prior weeks?

Not as dramatic of a surge as some other states, but then again, with today's update, Maryland is already 2% higher than my target number (105K), which was in turn 19% higher than the HHS Dept's target number (88K), which itself was 30% higher than their 2014 total (67,757).

A couple of weeks ago, Maryland blew past the HHS Dept's target for the state (88K QHPs) and hit 94K as of 1/22. I noted that they were on their way towards easily hitting my personal, higher target of 105K by 2/15.

In response, a few days ago I went through all 50 states (+DC) and adjusted my own projections, lowering them in 9 states while bumping them up in 26 others, including Maryland. I tacked another 10K onto MD to 115,000 QHP selections. (Note that I'm leaving my original projections in the actual spreadsheets to avoid confusion; the revisions are more just to confirm that I recognized where the trendlines would be and where my earlier logic fails were).

Just now, the MD exchange announced that they've already broken the 100K QHP mark:

A week or so ago, Maryland broke the official HHS target for 2015 (88K) with 91,137 QHP enrollments. Today, they're reporting:

As of Jan. 22, 185,199 Marylanders have enrolled in quality, affordable health coverage for calendar year 2015, since the 90-day open enrollment period began Nov. 15. That includes 93,806 people enrolled in private Qualified Health Plans (QHP) and 91,393 people enrolled in Medicaid.

As of Jan. 21, the total number of Medicaid and MCHP enrollment is 1,281,999. Compared to Dec. 31, 2013, the net change in Medicaid enrollment as of Jan. 21, 2015 is +241,337. This figure takes into account that individuals lose Medicaid coverage because of changes in household, age and income, as well as redeterminations.

OK, that's 2,669 in 11 days, or 242/day. This is down substantially from the prior week or so, but it includes the days leading up to and following the 1/15 deadline for February coverage (when they'd drop off again), so that doesn't really mean much.

TODAY, January 15th, is the deadline for anyone who wants to enroll in a private insurance policy for coverage starting on February 1st in most states (or to switch to a different policy if you have one but want to make a change starting in February).

After that, of course, we'll have the big February 15th deadline (for March 1st coverage), which will also be a big deal because it'll be the last chance many (not all) uninsured people have to get coverage before the door slams closed until next fall.

Remember, the penalty in 2016 for not having health insurance in 2015 is considerably higher than it was for 2014: Instead of 1% of your taxable income (or $95/person in your household, whichever is higher), the fee this year is 2% of your income or $325 per person.

On the surface, this is just another (admittedly good) enrollment update from Maryland:

As of Jan. 11, 169,462 Marylanders have enrolled in quality, affordable health coverage for calendar year 2015, since the 90-day open enrollment period began Nov. 15. That includes 91,137 people enrolled in private Qualified Health Plans and 78,325 people enrolled in Medicaid.

Marylanders can enroll by Jan. 18 for coverage effective Feb. 1 and, if eligible, for an Advanced Premium Tax Credit (APTC) to immediately lower their monthly insurance bills. Marylanders who were enrolled for 2014 should re-enroll by Jan. 18 for an Advanced Premium Tax Credit that begins Feb. 1. They will receive any tax credit owed for January 2015 when they file their federal income tax return in 2016.

Yes, that's right: We're quickly approaching the next big deadline: Private policy enrollment in time for coverage starting on February 1st.

Of the 3 monthly deadlines (January 1st start, February 1st start, March 1st start), this is the one getting the lowest amount of hype, for obvious reasons. The December 15th (or December 18, 23 or later, depending on the state) deadline was a huge deal because millions of people had to be renewed (either actively or automatically) in order to avoid any sort of a coverage gap, while a few million more people new to the exchanges jumped on board in time to start 2015 running. By my estimate, there should have been roughly 8.6 million people whose 2015 policies started on Jan. 1st.

The total numbers aren't much higher than the last update, but that's understandable; this official report only includes 3 more days, including a quiet holiday weekend:

As of Jan. 4, 156,305 Marylanders have enrolled in quality, affordable health coverage for calendar year 2015, since the 90-day open enrollment period began Nov. 15. That includes 87,348 people enrolled in private Qualified Health Plans and 68,957 people enrolled in Medicaid.

Marylanders can enroll by Jan. 18 for coverage effective Feb. 1 and, if eligible, for an Advanced Premium Tax Credit (APTC) to immediately lower their monthly insurance bills. Marylanders who were enrolled for 2014 should re-enroll by Jan. 18 for an Advanced Premium Tax Credit that begins Feb. 1. They will receive any tax credit owed for January 2015 when they file their federal income tax return in 2016.

Open enrollment for 2015 for Maryland Health Connection ends Feb. 15.

No official press release, but hard numbers from the Maryland exchange Twitter feed:

#Happy2015 #Maryland enrollments as of 1/1: 86,347 QHP, 67,255 Medicaid, 153,602 total. Next weekly report out Monday #GetCoveredMD

— MD Health Connection (@MarylandConnect) January 2, 2015

On it's surface, this sounds like a decent but not amazing update: Up 2,600 since 12/28. However, consider this: 86,347 QHP selections is up 6,360 since MD's January coverage deadline of 12/18. That means they're still enrolling new people at 454 per day for coverage starting in February...as opposed to the 339/day that they averaged duing the entire first open enrollment period. That's a rate over 33% faster.

Another update from Maryland:

As of Dec. 28, a total of 146,529 Marylanders have enrolled in quality, affordable health coverage for calendar year 2015 since the 90-day open enrollment period began Nov. 15. That includes 83,735 individuals enrolled in private Qualified Health Plans (QHP) and 62,794 individuals enrolled in Medicaid.

At 83,735 enrollments so far, MD has now enrolled 24% more people than they did during all of the 2014 open enrollment period (67,757 thru April 19th).

Put another way, they've enrolled 375 people per day since their January deadline, which is still 11% faster than the 338/day they averaged during the first open enrollment period (including the December and March surges).

Add another 62,794 to Medicaid and MD's turnaround for 2015 is quite impressive indeed.

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