The new public exchanges may have disappointed the enrollment forecasters, but they seem to indicate some consumer interest in a new way to buy health insurance. High-populated states such as New York and California have the highest enrollment numbers, data shows.
The department of Health and Human Services state-by-state exchange activity table shows that the exchanges now have about 1.1 million enrollees who can use the exchanges to shop for private coverage and 326,130 who can use government subsidies to shop for coverage.
By way of comparison, the popular, well-established eHealthInsurance.com private exchange website has about 1.1 million members.
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New York, which has a state-based exchange, has 134,897 approved private "qualified health plan" shoppers. California, another state with a state-based exchange, ranks second, with 93,663 approved QHP shoppers. Florida, an HHS exchange state that has been hostile to the exchange program, has 93,456 approved QHP shoppers, and Texas, another anti-Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act HHS exchange state, has 80,960 approved QHP shoppers.
One difference between the HHS and state-based exchanges is the percentage of applicants who qualified for federal exchange subsidies, or for Medicaid or other government health plans.
At the state-based exchanges, just 23 percent of the applicants with approved applications qualified for QHP subsidies, but 41 percent of all people who applied for coverage qualified for Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program coverage.
At the HHS exchanges, 34 percent of the approved QHP shoppers qualified for subsidies, but only 18 percent of all applicants qualified for Medicaid or CHIP coverage.
| EXCHANGE ACTIVITY | ||||
| People who can: | ||||
| # of people | Join a QHP | Get a subsidy | Join govt. plan | |
| California | 192,489 | 93,663 | N/A | 79,519 |
| Colorado | 45,575 | 36,335 | 8,742 | N/A |
| Connecticut | 18,815 | 12,325 | 6,807 | 6,490 |
| District of Columbia | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Hawaii | 2,379 | 1,156 | N/A | N/A |
| Kentucky | 76,294 | 39,207 | 13,201 | 28,676 |
| Maryland | N/A | 3,498 | 2,638 | 5,923 |
| Massachusetts | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Minnesota | 31,447 | 21,532 | 6,759 | 9,166 |
| Nevada | 14,819 | N/A | N/A | 5,710 |
| New York | N/A | 134,897 | 34,267 | 23,902 |
| Oregon | N/A | 190 | N/A | 425 |
| Rhode Island | 9,581 | 3,326 | 2,086 | 3,447 |
| Vermont | 5,540 | 3,341 | 1,078 | 1,411 |
| Washington | 119,309 | 29,503 | 13,375 | 48,196 |
| ALL STATE-BASED EXCHANGES | 516,248 | 378,973 | 88,953 | 212,865 |
| Idaho | 10,573 | 7,733 | 3,305 | 1,597 |
| New Mexico | 7,529 | 4,249 | 1,549 | 3,552 |
| Alabama | 20,840 | 14,696 | 4,910 | 2,262 |
| Alaska | 2,203 | 1,606 | 598 | 368 |
| Arizona | 32,897 | 20,741 | 7,156 | 11,339 |
| Arkansas | 14,059 | 6,123 | 2,279 | 7,430 |
| Delaware | 3,491 | 2,204 | 674 | 1,200 |
| Florida | 123,870 | 93,456 | 29,637 | 12,887 |
| Georgia | 56,783 | 41,426 | 12,757 | 7,709 |
| Illinois | 56,636 | 35,802 | 11,603 | 19,447 |
| Indiana | 31,979 | 19,093 | 7,890 | 11,305 |
| Iowa | 10,884 | 6,104 | 2,079 | 4,490 |
| Kansas | 12,205 | 9,087 | 3,009 | 1,718 |
| Louisiana | 14,163 | 10,294 | 3,277 | 1,460 |
| Maine | 6,497 | 5,061 | 2,116 | 623 |
| Michigan | 44,025 | 34,197 | 12,468 | 4,978 |
| Mississippi | 8,204 | 5,822 | 1,662 | 925 |
| Missouri | 27,911 | 20,121 | 7,111 | 4,157 |
| Montana | 5,205 | 3,815 | 1,711 | 457 |
| Nebraska | 9,973 | 7,453 | 2,967 | 2,295 |
| New Hampshire | 7,817 | 5,767 | 2,016 | 1,643 |
| New Jersey | 42,372 | 23,985 | 8,082 | 17,460 |
| North Carolina | 57,653 | 42,110 | 15,051 | 7,404 |
| North Dakota | 1,845 | 1,180 | 370 | 585 |
| Ohio | 45,128 | 34,374 | 11,866 | 7,535 |
| Oklahoma | 14,169 | 9,952 | 1,432 | 2,412 |
| Pennsylvania | 57,674 | 43,966 | 15,497 | 3,788 |
| South Carolina | 20,980 | 15,257 | 4,973 | 3,112 |
| South Dakota | 3,081 | 2,279 | 822 | 525 |
| Tennessee | 33,230 | 24,334 | 8,573 | 4,089 |
| Texas | 108,410 | 80,960 | 25,520 | 11,682 |
| Utah | 14,580 | 9,318 | 3,883 | 4,816 |
| Virginia | 42,341 | 32,534 | 9,333 | 4,088 |
| West Virginia | 7,096 | 3,442 | 1,268 | 3,103 |
| Wisconsin | 34,678 | 22,038 | 8,911 | 10,736 |
| Wyoming | 2,654 | 2,040 | 822 | 219 |
| ALL HHS EXCHANGES | 993,635 | 702,619 | 237,177 | 183,396 |
| EXCHANGE TOTAL | 1,509,883 | 1,081,592 | 326,130 | 396,261 |
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
