Thread: Health care sign-ups hit 365,000, but there's a long way to go

Health care sign-ups hit 365,000, but there's a long way to go

Americans have until Dec. 23 to select policy if they want coverage to start Jan. 1

UPDATED 10:39 AM CST Dec 11, 2013

Healthcare.gov

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) —Nearly 365,000 people have signed up for the Affordable Care Act in its first two months, but that's still a far cry from the 7 million projected to ultimately enroll for 2014.

The pace of sign-ups accelerated in November after the Obama administration worked to solve technical problems with healthcare.gov. Officials say there has been an even bigger increase in traffic in recent weeks.

Through November, just over 137,200 Americans have picked an insurance policy through healthcare.gov and nearly 227,500 through the 14 state-run exchanges, according to new federal figures released Wednesday. That's up from a total of 106,000 who signed up in October.

These figures reflect people who have selected an insurance plan, but not all have paid their first month's premium, which activates the coverage. An additional 1.94 million people have been determined eligible to enroll, but have not yet picked a policy.

Americans have until Dec. 23 to select a policy if they want coverage to start Jan. 1. They must start paying their premiums by the end of this year, or they may see their policy selection canceled. Open enrollment for those who want coverage in 2014 ends March 31.

Federal officials said they think they are on track to reach their goals and noted that many people wait until the last minute to enroll.
"We're not exclusively focused on reaching a particular number. What we're focused on is reaching the millions of people who are really looking for affordable health care coverage," said Michael Hash, director of the Office of Health Reform in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Total enrollment is not the only important measure, Hash said. The viability of the exchanges depends on how many enrollees sign up in each state and the mix of participants.

"It's really about who signs up and where," he said.

The ACA must attract younger, healthier people to offset the higher costs of the older and sicker. Otherwise, premiums could jump for 2015.

Only a handful of state exchanges have released demographic data of those picking plans. California, for instance, said that younger residents age 18 to 34 accounted for about 22.5 percent of the sign ups in October, just about the share they represent in the state population.

Sign-ups vary widely by state. More than 107,000 Californians have picked plans, while only 44 Oregonians have. Florida leads the way in the federal exchange, with nearly 18,000 people picking plans, while North Dakota has only 265 sign-ups.

Only about 41 percent of the total number eligible to enroll so far qualify for subsidies, less than half of initial projections.

Separately, just over 803,000 people have been determined eligible for Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program. Only half of states and the District of Columbia have opted to expand this public health program.

While federal officials have addressed many of the technical issues that plagued consumers' ability to sign up for a plan, they continue to wrestle with transmitting accurate applications to insurers. Officials say they think 90 percent of transaction forms are accurate, but are still working with insurers to match applicants records.

http://www.wisn.com/news/health/heal...#ixzz2nCNQcZId

California enrolls 107,000 in Obamacare policies through November

Marta Viera smiles as she finishes her health insurance application under the Affordable Care Act with an enrollment counselor at a Los Angeles clinic last month. (Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times)

• Terhune

December 11, 2013, 9:55 a.m.

California's health exchange has signed up 107,087 people in Obamacare policies through the end of November, federal data show, accounting for nearly a third of enrollment nationwide.

The federal figures released Wednesday also show that 181,817 Californians have qualified for an expansion of Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program for the poor.

California has been struggling to deal with a surge of applicants in recent weeks as part of the Affordable Care Act as well as dig through a backlog of paper applications. The average wait time for consumers calling Covered California hit 36 minutes last week, up from 25 minutes the previous week.

Consumers must sign up by Dec. 23 if they want coverage starting Jan. 1. Open enrollment in the exchange continues through March 31.
In October, 30,830 people enrolled in private health plans in California. The pace of sign-ups more than doubled during November with 76,257 selecting a health plan then.

In the last 10 days of November, federal data suggest, about 2,700 people were enrolling daily through Covered California.

Overall, 364,682 people have enrolled in private health insurance in federal and state exchanges nationwide through Nov. 30.

California's enrollment accounts for 29% of the U.S. total. On Medicaid, California represents 23% of the national tally through November.

Full coverage: Obamacare rolls out

Other leading states include New York with 45,513 enrolled in private health insurance, 17,908 in Florida and 17,770 in Washington state, according to the federal report.

Meantime, a top California official and some health-privacy experts have called on Covered California to stop sharing consumers' contact information without their consent with insurance agents.

Last week, the California exchange started giving their certified agents access to names and contact information for tens of thousands of people who started an online application but never finished.

Democrat Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the exchange should halt the practice.

"Nothing will undermine the program more than a loss of the public trust," Newsom said in a statement. "The decision to share private information with insurance agents without the consent of Californians is a serious mistake and should be rectified immediately."

Newsom said the exchange should ask people to opt-in on the website before sharing their information. The exchange has said no personal details such as Social Security numbers or income were shared.

Christopher Rasmussen, a health privacy analyst at the Center for Democracy & Technology in San Francisco, agreed that Covered California should obtain permission first or handle any follow-up with consumers themselves.

"They shouldn't have done this," Rasmussen said. "It's a stupid move by the exchange."

Covered California has defended the program as another way to help people enroll and to draw on experienced agents who are ready to pitch in.

"We’ve got tens of thousands of people sitting there who had expressed an interest," said Anne Gonzales, an exchange spokeswoman. "We don’t want them to fall through the cracks. We would like to get them over the finish line."

http://www.latimes.com/business/mone...#ixzz2nCtvAjrC

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