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.
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.
JPL
@J R in WV: The emergency rooms will be overloaded, and fewer hospitals will be open to service them.
Steeplejack
@JPL:
So, working as intended, in other words.
#ThanksGOP #SavageNutpunch
Another Scott
@J R in WV: Beckley Register-Herald (from December 9):
Lots of disinformation probably contributed to the falloff. :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
The drop is because they all got company health insurance when they went back to their coal-mining jobs.
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 .
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:
What am I missing here. How do we square this circle?
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.
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.