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“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

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“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

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Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / Changes in enrollment on Healthcare.gov

Changes in enrollment on Healthcare.gov

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The Healthcare.gov data just came out this afternoon. Nationally, enrollment on Healthcare.gov is about 4% lower this year than it was in 2017 at the end of that open enrollment period. There is significant variation in enrollment by state. North Carolina basically performed at national averages. Louisiana dropped 22% of its enrollment. This might be a Medicaid story, I don’t think it is, but that is vaguely plausible. West Virginia dropped a but less than 20% of its enrollment. At the same time, Kentucky increased enrollment by 11% and other states also saw increased enrollment.

I want to see in-state county level enrollment changes to evaluate the impact of Gold Gapping and Silver Loading. That data won’t be available for a bit, so state level summaries are what I can do quickly tonight.


My data is here:

2018 Enrollment data is at CMS.

2017 state level data is from CMS PUF.

Reader Interactions

9Comments

  1. 1.

    J R in WV

    So, in WV 20% fewer people signed up? I’m going out on a limb and guess that when they saw that their current policy went up quite a bit, they just said “Aw, shit, we can’t afford THAT!” and didn’t go onto the web site to look for other policies.

    Still, that’s surprising, even strange. Population of working people is dropping, people moving away to look for work. Those people are the kinds of people who would have looked for insurance, with a little initiative.

  4. 4.

    Another Scott

    @J R in WV: Beckley Register-Herald (from December 9):

    From Nov. 1 through Dec. 2, just more than 10,000 West Virginians had signed up for coverage. Last year for roughly the same time period, Nov. 1 through Dec. 10, nearly 15,000 had enrolled.

    “We’re the only state in the country that’s not seeing a huge increase in enrollment numbers compared to this time last year,” said Jeremy Smith, program director of WV NaviCare. “It’s just speculation on why. All we can guess is people are confused about the availability of plans on healthcare.gov.”

    Smith said the decreased enrollment could be attributed to misinformation circulating, or residents could simply be waiting for auto-enrollment — something he doesn’t advise.

    “Plans have changed substantially,” Smith said. “They’re not doing themselves any favors by not shopping and looking at other plans.”

    He wants to emphasize that coverage through the ACA is still available, but the enrollment window is much shorter this year. Previously, folks could enroll for coverage through Jan. 31, but this year, the enrollment deadline is Dec. 15.

    “It’s extremely important to sign up by the deadline,” Smith said.

    He also emphasizes that financial assistance is still available for individuals to pay for their premiums, and to pay for their co-pays and deductibles.

    “A lot of people were confused when President Trump mentioned he would stop paying cost-sharing to insurance companies. A lot of people took that to mean financial assistance or subsidies would go away, but they haven’t.”

    Smith noted the penalty for not having health insurance is still in place, so those without insurance will have to pay $695 or 2.5 percent of their annual income, whichever number is greater.

    “Another major problem I see that’s not being talked about is people are very confused about where to shop,” Smith said. “Healthcare.gov is the only legitimate place for Marketplace plans and to be eligible for subsidies.”

    Lots of disinformation probably contributed to the falloff. :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  6. 6.

    mai naem mobile

    Honestly, a 4 % drop off is good considering all the crap the Grand Old Pedophile party has pulled to get rid of the ACA.
    I do hope Dolt 45s kids ,McConnell,Pence,Munchkin and Ryan all end up in ERs super busy with uninsured patients in heir tune of desperate need of life changing ER services .

  7. 7.

    marcopolo

    From what I can tell by the map that you linked MO supposedly saw a 4% increase in sign ups in 2017. But then I have local news sources saying:

    COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) _ Enrollment in health insurance under the health care law has dropped by nearly half in Missouri this year.

    The Columbia Missourian reports that the open enrollment period for the health insurance program ended last week.

    Numbers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show about 133,000 people in Missouri enrolled in a plan under the health care law, compared to more than 244,000 people last year. The numbers represent enrollments through Dec. 9.

    What am I missing here. How do we square this circle?

  8. 8.

    Kelly

    Oregon budgeted $1.8 million for ACA advertising to make up for federal short fall. In other news Oregon found some way to bridge CHIP families with Medicaid money. It’ll be problem if the CHIP money never comes but I’m hoping for the best.

  9. 9.

    satby

    I enrolled through a navigator website, but the notification to pay my first premium send me to Healthcare.gov, where the 2018 application isn’t showing up for me to pay a premium on. Guess I have to call them tomorrow.

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