Health Insurance Enrollment Strongest in Federal Marketplace http://ift.tt/1zZCkja
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Health Insurance Enrollment Strongest in Federal Marketplace
The Obama administration on Tuesday reported a big increase in new customers signing up for health insurance in Florida, Texas and other states using the federal insurance marketplace.
But in states running their own insurance exchanges, the numbers were more modest.
All told, the administration said, in the first month of open enrollment for 2015 coverage, more than four million people signed up for the first time or re-enrolled through the federal and state insurance marketplaces. About 3.4 million of them were in the 37 states using HealthCare.gov, the website of the federal marketplace.
More than two million consumers signed up for the first time, the administration reported, and 1.8 million of them did so through the federal marketplace. States with large numbers of new customers in the federal exchange included Florida (330,000), Texas (205,000), North Carolina (110,000), Georgia (103,000) and Pennsylvania (95,000).
The report showed the importance of subsidies to people seeking coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Officials said that 87 percent of those selecting health plans for next year in the federal exchange had qualified for subsidies that would reduce their premiums. That is larger than the proportion of people who qualified for financial assistance in the initial months of the first open enrollment period (80 percent from October to December 2013). But it is about the same as the proportion who eventually qualified for subsidies in the federal exchange: 86 percent through March 2014.
The subsidies are under attack in a Supreme Court case filed by critics of the health care law, who contend that it does not authorize such assistance in states using the federal exchange.
Larry Levitt, a senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said, “It’s significant that the largest number of new enrollees this fall came from states like Florida and Texas, which were not the most enthusiastic supporters of the health care law.”
California, the most populous state, which led the nation with 1.4 million people insured through its state-run exchange in 2014, says it has added 144,000 new enrollees this fall, through Dec. 15.
New York, with the second-largest state-run exchange, signed up 370,500 people in the first open enrollment period and says it has enrolled nearly 83,100 new customers this fall, through Dec. 20. After snowstorms paralyzed much of western New York, the state extended the enrollment deadline to Dec. 20, for coverage starting on Jan. 1.
The demographic profile of people signing up for 2015 is similar to that of people who previously bought insurance on the exchanges. Twenty-four percent are age 18 to 34, a relatively healthy group sought by many insurers. Latinos account for 8 percent of people signing up for 2015 coverage in the federal exchange, compared with 7 percent this year.
“We see no signs that the administration has succeeded in getting significantly more young people and Hispanics,” said Caroline F. Pearson, who tracks the data as a vice president of Avalere Health, a research and consulting company.
The current enrollment period lasts three months, from Nov. 15 to Feb. 15. It is half as long as the initial open enrollment period, from October 2013 through March of this year.
The latest numbers include people who took action to renew their coverage for 2015 or changed plans, but generally do not include people who were automatically re-enrolled in their current health plans. The Obama administration repeatedly urged people to return to the marketplace, update information on their household income and shop for health plans that might offer better value. But several million people evidently failed to do so, and their coverage will be renewed in the same or similar health plans.
Mr. Levitt, from the Kaiser Family Foundation, said, “The administration appears to be well on the way to meeting its own enrollment target, but still short of projections by the Congressional Budget Office.”
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, has said she is aiming to have 9.1 million people insured in the federal and state exchanges next year, up from 6.7 million this year. The budget office had projected enrollment rising to 13 million in 2015 and 24 million in 2016.
Even though the federal government has awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to states to set up insurance exchanges, it has had difficulty enforcing standards for the reporting of enrollment data. The report on Tuesday was full of footnotes acknowledging gaps and inconsistencies in the data.
As a result, Ms. Pearson said, “it is very difficult to make apples-to-apples comparisons between states, between the federal and state exchanges, and between the open enrollment periods for 2014 and 2015.” Source
The Obama administration on Tuesday reported a big increase in new customers signing up for health insurance in Florida, Texas and other states using the federal insurance marketplace.
But in states running their own insurance exchanges, the numbers were more modest.
All told, the administration said, in the first month of open enrollment for 2015 coverage, more than four million people signed up for the first time or re-enrolled through the federal and state insurance marketplaces. About 3.4 million of them were in the 37 states using HealthCare.gov, the website of the federal marketplace.
More than two million consumers signed up for the first time, the administration reported, and 1.8 million of them did so through the federal marketplace. States with large numbers of new customers in the federal exchange included Florida (330,000), Texas (205,000), North Carolina (110,000), Georgia (103,000) and Pennsylvania (95,000).
The report showed the importance of subsidies to people seeking coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Officials said that 87 percent of those selecting health plans for next year in the federal exchange had qualified for subsidies that would reduce their premiums. That is larger than the proportion of people who qualified for financial assistance in the initial months of the first open enrollment period (80 percent from October to December 2013). But it is about the same as the proportion who eventually qualified for subsidies in the federal exchange: 86 percent through March 2014.
The subsidies are under attack in a Supreme Court case filed by critics of the health care law, who contend that it does not authorize such assistance in states using the federal exchange.
Larry Levitt, a senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, said, “It’s significant that the largest number of new enrollees this fall came from states like Florida and Texas, which were not the most enthusiastic supporters of the health care law.”
California, the most populous state, which led the nation with 1.4 million people insured through its state-run exchange in 2014, says it has added 144,000 new enrollees this fall, through Dec. 15.
New York, with the second-largest state-run exchange, signed up 370,500 people in the first open enrollment period and says it has enrolled nearly 83,100 new customers this fall, through Dec. 20. After snowstorms paralyzed much of western New York, the state extended the enrollment deadline to Dec. 20, for coverage starting on Jan. 1.
The demographic profile of people signing up for 2015 is similar to that of people who previously bought insurance on the exchanges. Twenty-four percent are age 18 to 34, a relatively healthy group sought by many insurers. Latinos account for 8 percent of people signing up for 2015 coverage in the federal exchange, compared with 7 percent this year.
“We see no signs that the administration has succeeded in getting significantly more young people and Hispanics,” said Caroline F. Pearson, who tracks the data as a vice president of Avalere Health, a research and consulting company.
The current enrollment period lasts three months, from Nov. 15 to Feb. 15. It is half as long as the initial open enrollment period, from October 2013 through March of this year.
The latest numbers include people who took action to renew their coverage for 2015 or changed plans, but generally do not include people who were automatically re-enrolled in their current health plans. The Obama administration repeatedly urged people to return to the marketplace, update information on their household income and shop for health plans that might offer better value. But several million people evidently failed to do so, and their coverage will be renewed in the same or similar health plans.
Mr. Levitt, from the Kaiser Family Foundation, said, “The administration appears to be well on the way to meeting its own enrollment target, but still short of projections by the Congressional Budget Office.”
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, has said she is aiming to have 9.1 million people insured in the federal and state exchanges next year, up from 6.7 million this year. The budget office had projected enrollment rising to 13 million in 2015 and 24 million in 2016.
Even though the federal government has awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to states to set up insurance exchanges, it has had difficulty enforcing standards for the reporting of enrollment data. The report on Tuesday was full of footnotes acknowledging gaps and inconsistencies in the data.
As a result, Ms. Pearson said, “it is very difficult to make apples-to-apples comparisons between states, between the federal and state exchanges, and between the open enrollment periods for 2014 and 2015.” Source
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