Again, for comparison, during the first open enrollment period, Minnesota enrolled 48,495 people, or 242 per day, so their initial pace is about even with that so far:
More than 500 people signed up for commercial health insurance this weekend through MNsure, the state’s health insurance exchange.
Open enrollment started Saturday at MNsure, and more than 27,000 new and returning users accessed the health exchange website through the weekend, said Scott Leitz, the MNsure chief executive during a news conference Monday in St. Paul. About 2,700 people phoned the MNsure call center for help, and the average wait time was about two minutes, Leitz said.
The first-weekend figures are a good start toward meeting enrollment goals, Leitz said. The number of phone calls this weekend was 10 times the typical volume for MNsure.
This makes the 5th state-run exchange to report hard numbers for Day One...this brings the verified Day One total to 2,515 QHP enrollees. Again, small but symbolically significant.
MNsure calls Saturday’s open enrollment a big improvement from what happened last year.
As of 3 p.m., 201 people had signed up for health insurance.
On average, customers waited for help a little more than one minute. Last year, the average wait was more than two hours.
OK, the numbers have barely moved, and technically this update is missing 3 days (it only runs through 11/11 instead of 11/14), but MNsure has been the only exchange, federal or state, which has provided an almost odometer-like frequency of off-exchange updates.
Amazing. Even with things ramping up for #OE2 (Open Enrollment Period 2), and even with the midterm elections overwhelming everything for the past few weeks, Minnesota continues to quietly plod along, racking up the ACA enrollments along the way:
Latest Enrollment Numbers
November 4, 2014
Health Coverage Type Cumulative Enrollments
Medical Assistance 233,194
MinnesotaCare 80,111
Qualified Health Plan (QHP) 55,813
TOTAL 369,118
Minnesota's exchange (called MNsure and pronounced to rhyme with "insure") has had it's share of technical problems, but they haven't been nearly as bad as the 4 state-run exchanges undergoing full overhauls (OR & NV are scrapping theirs entirely; MA & MD started over from scratch). They got hit with some bad news recently when the largest insurer on the exchange decided to bail, although that appears to have had more to do with that company's poor business decisions than anything on MNsure's side.
However, they've continued to keep chugging along, quietly adding more enrollees to both private QHP policies (via qualifying life events) as well as Medicaid and MinnesotaCare (neither of which have any deadlines involved). Most relevant to myself, they're also the only exchange which has continued to provide consistent, regular enrollment data updates on a near-daily basis, which is manna from heaven from my POV.
As we head into the final few weeks before the 2nd Open Enrollment period, it looks like MNsure is the only state which is left posting regular off-season enrollment updates. Things are definitely tapering off (only 113 new QHPs over the past 6 days & 3,294 added to Medicaid/MinnesotaCare), but that's still over 3,400 more people with coverage.
latest enrollment numbers
October 22, 2014
Health Coverage Type Cumulative Enrollments
Medical Assistance 227,476
MinnesotaCare 78,321
Qualified Health Plan (QHP) 55,564
TOTAL 361,361
Things may be slowing down, but some people are still enrolling in 2014 QHPs just 1 month before the 2015 enrollment period opens; 162 Minnesotans from 10/8 - 10/16. In addition, Medicaid/MinnesotaCare has jumped by over 7,000 people:
latest enrollment numbers
October 16, 2014
Health Coverage Type Cumulative Enrollments
Medical Assistance 224,891
MinnesotaCare 77,612
Qualified Health Plan (QHP) 55,451
TOTAL 357,954
Things are definitely tapering off as we come up to the new open enrollment period; Minnesota only added 46 more QHP enrollees in the past week, and just 2,087 more people to either Medicaid or MinnesotaCare. However, this does mean that the MNsure exchange has crossed the 350,000 total milestone:
latest enrollment numbers
October 7, 2014
Health Coverage Type Cumulative Enrollments
Medical Assistance 219,217
MinnesotaCare 76,275
Qualified Health Plan (QHP) 55,289 TOTAL 350,781
On the one hand, I've been expecting the daily QHP enrollment rate to drop off nationally as we approach November 15th; anyone who isn't truly desperate for coverage is likely to hold off at this point even if they do have a qualifying life event, given the numerous changes in companies, policies and rates which are going to be available. On the other hand, my "9,000 per day" estimate has always been a bit closer to the low end of the range (7,900 - 10,500 per day at the moment), so I have some wiggle room in this final month anyway.
