Thread: New York had more than 40,000 sign up for Obamacare the first week

40K New Yorkers sign up for Obamacare

By Andy Soltis
October 9, 2013 | 2:31am

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More than 40,000 New Yorkers signed up for insurance on the state’s ObamaCare health exchange in the first week, officials said Tuesday.

That topped enrollment in all other states, the New York Health Department said. Officials estimated that 1 million of the 2.7 million uninsured New Yorkers will get coverage through the state’s insurance marketplace.

“What the 40,000 people represent to me is . . . that there is vast interest in applying for coverage through our state marketplace,” said Donna Frescatore, executive director of the New York State of Health exchange. “It started a little rockier than we’d like,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted in an interview on “The Daily Show.”

“And our system is processing applications quickly and efficiently.”

New York and California are the two biggest markets for signing up millions of uninsured Americans under President Obama’s health-care law.

State officials called the data an early indicator of strong demand for new insurance plans that will take effect in 2014.

http://nypost.com/2013/10/09/40k-new-yorkers-sign-up-for-obamacare/

40K New Yorkers sign up for Obamacare

By Andy Soltis
October 9, 2013 | 2:31am

http://nypost.com/2013/10/09/40k-new-yorkers-sign-up-for-obamacare/

California Obamacare Sign-Ups Exceed 28,000 in First Week

By Alison Vekshin - Oct 8, 2013 2:55 PM PT

California said 28,699 people were signed up in the state’s health-insurance exchange in the first week, while New York had more than 40,000 sign up.

The numbers for California, the largest U.S. state by population, were for the Oct. 1 to Oct. 5 period and exceeded expectations, Peter V. Lee, executive director of Covered California, said at a news conference today in Sacramento. New York, the third most-populous state, said in a statement that its pace of sign-ups shows the exchange is “working smoothly.”


Doctor and Patient
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

The insurance exchanges are a key part of the 2010 law that seeks to provide health coverage for most of the 48 million uninsured Americans.

The insurance exchanges are a key part of the 2010 law that seeks to provide health coverage for most of the 48 million uninsured Americans. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, the operator of the state's insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, and spokeswoman Angela Blanchette, speak about the opening of the state's health-insurance marketplace. Lee speaks at a news conference in San Francisco. Blanchette speaks with Bloomberg's Alison Vekshin at an event at City College of San Francisco. (Source: Bloomberg)

Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) –- Ron Pollack, executive director of the health advocacy group Families USA, and participants at the WeConnect Health Enrollment Information & Wellness Event in Oakland, California, talk with Bloomberg's Alison Vekshin about the Affordable Care Act. The law is taking on political importance in California as the state targets Latinos to ensure their enrollment. Bloomberg’s Kevin Thrash reports. (Source: Bloomberg)


eHealthInsurance Services
A call operator answers phones on the first day of Obamacare at an eHealthInsurance Services Inc. call center in Sacramento, California. Photographer: Ken James/Bloomberg

The Oct. 1 rollout of the Affordable Care Act exchanges has faced technical issues, with consumers unable to access parts of the U.S. government’s website that serves people in 36 states. California, one of 14 states running its own website, has fared better. Success is critical in California, where the Obama administration has sent almost $1 billion in exchange grants.
“Looking back at this one week, the response has been nothing short of phenomenal,” Lee said. “We anticipated we’d have very low enrollment in the first week.”
Open enrollment ends March 31, and Lee estimated that 500,000 to 700,000 Californians would enroll with subsidies by then. About 5.3 million Californians will have access to coverage through the exchange or on their own, with about half eligible for financial assistance by next year, according to the state’s website. An additional 1.4 million will be newly eligible for the state’s Medicaid program.
New York

Almost 2.7 million New Yorkers don’t have health insurance and more than 1 million will get coverage through the exchange, the state said on its website. The 40,000 figure reported is for people who completed the full application process and were found eligible for an insurance plan.
The insurance exchanges are a core part of the 2010 law that seeks to provide health coverage for most of the 48 million uninsured Americans. People using the exchanges can select from health plans sold by private insurers and, depending on income, may be eligible to have their premium costs subsidized with federal tax credits. Some people also may be eligible for coverage under an expansion of Medicaid, the joint state-federal plan for the poor.
The health law championed by President Barack Obama has been the focal point of the partisan budget dispute in Congress that led to the current government shutdown.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alison Vekshin in San Francisco at avekshin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net; Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-08/california-tops-28-000-in-health-exchange-enrollment.html

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