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.
Minnesota continues to quietly crank along as we enter the 2nd year of MNsure:
latest enrollment numbers
October 5, 2014
Health Coverage Type Cumulative Enrollments
Medical Assistance 217,535
MinnesotaCare 75,870
Qualified Health Plan (QHP) 55,243
TOTAL 348,648
Note that I'm not really even bothering to keep the Off-Season Projection Chart updated anymore; we're close enough to the 2nd Open Enrollment period that it seems a bit silly to bother (heck, I've already projected the graphs out through 11/15 anyway).
It may seem a bit pointless to keep posting 2015 premium rate changes now that we're only 6 weeks away from the Open Enrollment period anyway (everyone will find out soon enough at this point), but the BS is still flying fast & furious, and the topic seems especially relevant in Minnesota's case since the largest insurer on the 2014 exchange, PreferredOne, has pulled out for Year Two:
Minnesota officials say the average rate for policies sold on the state health insurance exchange next year will go up 4.5 percent.
But, they say Minnesotans will still have access to the lowest average rates in the nation.
The five companies participating in the exchange range from dropping their averages by 10 percent to hiking them more than 17 percent.
They declined to say which companies are raising rates and which are lowering them.
BluePlus joins Blue Cross Blue Shield, HealthPartners, Medica and UCare this year.
Unfortunately, not only is there no way of doing a weighted average here since the current enrollees for the various plans aren't listed, I can't even post which companies are increasing or decreasing their rates. Ah, well.
Yes, I know I just updated Minnesota 2 days ago, and no, the latest numbers aren't terribly significant increases, but given that MN is the only state which has been consistently updating their data almost daily, with a nice simple breakout between QHPs, Medicaid and MinnesotaCare (a sort of quasi-Medicaid/QHP hybrid allowed for by the ACA), I figured I owed it to them to provide an update which matches their numbers up precisely with Day 365...exactly 1 year to the day since the exchanges launched last October:
enrollment update
latest enrollment numbers
September 30, 2014
Health Coverage Type Cumulative Enrollments
Medical Assistance 214,071
MinnesotaCare 75,013
Qualified Health Plan (QHP) 55,148
TOTAL 344,232
QHPs are up another 183, Medicaid 5,242 and MinnesotaCare (which is a little bit like high-end Medicaid, from what I can tell) is up another 1,160 over the past 7 days:
latest enrollment numbers
September 28, 2014
Health Coverage Type Cumulative Enrollments
Medical Assistance 212,331
MinnesotaCare 74,609
Qualified Health Plan (QHP) 55,001
TOTAL 341,941
One of last week's big ACA stories was the news that the largest insurance company on Minnesota's exchange, PreferredOne, was dropping out of MNsure.
ACA critics pounced all over this news as Yet More Proof That Obamacare Is Failing®, even though pretty much every "proof" they've presented to date has turned out to be nonsense or, at best, vastly exaggerated (never mind, either, the fact that overall, 77 new insurers are joining the ACA exchanges while only 15 are dropping out, for a net gain of 62 companies nationally).
Minnesota's QHP numbers continue to quietly rise slowly despite the news last week that the MNsure's largest participant, PreferredOne, is pulling out of the exchange for year two. Meanwhile, their Medicaid number is up another 6,541, and MinnesotaCare (which isn't actually Medicaid proper, but is sort of a quasi-Medicaid-like program allowed for & funded by the Affordable Care Act) is up 1,489.
I've generally sort of lumped Medicaid and MinnesotaCare together, but it's worth noting that the successful addition of 73.4K people to MinnesotaCare is one of the main reasons for PreferredOne pulling out of the exchange in the first place.
latest enrollment numbers
September 21, 2014
Health Coverage Type Cumulative Enrollments
Medical Assistance 207,089
MinnesotaCare 73,449
Qualified Health Plan (QHP) 54,818
TOTAL 335,356
Ouch. While most states are seeing their list of insurance providers increasing this year, in a few cases some are dropping out...and in the case of Minnesota, it's the one with 59% of current enrollees:
The insurer with the lowest rates and most customers on Minnesota's health care exchange is pulling out.
Golden Valley-based PreferredOne this morning confirmed its exit from MNsure. It comes as a major blow to the exchange — the next open enrollment period starts Nov. 15 and runs through Feb. 15.
MNsure officials said the online insurance exchange would reach out soon to PreferredOne customers who bought coverage through MNsure last year with information on next steps.
They said consumers still have at least four, well-known, Minnesota-based carriers "who are committed to providing important health coverage" to everyone, including people who qualify for tax credits and public programs.
...According to a company statement, MNsure policies make up only a small percentage of PreferredOne's entire enrollment but take up a significant amount of resources to support.
