Business at HealthCare.gov slowed during the fifth and sixth weeks of the open enrollment period for 2018 individual health insurance.
The Affordable Care Act exchange program manager received 2018 plan selection information for 1.9 million families and a total of 2.4 million people during the two-week period that ended Dec. 9, according to new data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The number of families selecting plans was up 1 percent from the total for the comparable period in 2016, but the total number of people on those coverage applications was down 4.2 percent, according to CMS data.
HealthCare.gov recorded strong activity gains during the first four weeks of the open enrollment periods. Thanks to those gains, the six-week plan selection total is up 17 percent, year-over-year. HealthCare.gov plan issuers are on track to be covering 4.7 million people Jan. 1, 2018.
or the two-week period ending Dec. 9, the number of applications from families new to the exchange system was down 4.4 percent, year-over-year. The number of applications from newcomers was up 13 percent.
HealthCare.gov received plan selection information for 1.2 million returning families and 660,191 newcomer families during that two-week period.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the parent of CMS, set up HealthCare.gov to run Affordable Care Act exchange programs for states that were unable or unwilling to handle all of the work themselves.
The District of Columbia and 11 states run their own ACA exchange programs.
ACASignups.net, a public exchange enrollment tracking website, reports that the locally run exchange programs have 2.3 million people on track to have exchange plan coverage in place Jan. 1. That brings the national total to 7 million.
The open enrollment period for 2017 started Nov. 1, 2016, and ran until Jan. 31, 2017.
This year, CMS shortened the open enrollment period. The current enrollment period started Nov. 1 and is set to end Friday.
A web broker eHealth Inc., reported today that 56 percent of the consumers shopping on its site were unaware that the open enrollment period ends Friday.
Some have speculated that the shortened HealthCare.gov open enrollment period could cut enrollment.
In the past, however, plan selection information has flooded into HealthCare.gov close to key enrollment period deadlines. Last-minute activity has thrown off enrollment projections based on mid-enrollment-period signup counts.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
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.
