Preview of Final Enrollment

Updated: Now includes New York’s final enrollment numbers released on 2/1.

January 31 was the final Open Enrollment deadline for California and New York — the state based marketplaces that kept the same deadline as previous years. Even though it could take some time for California and DC to put out their final enrollment totals, based on what state based marketplaces have released already, we have a good sense of where things stand.

Even before the final numbers have been released, we know the state based marketplaces signed up more people for 2018 coverage than they did last year. Based on state releases ahead of the January 31 deadline, 3,024,343 people signed up for 2018 coverage — that compares to the total plan selection number released last year by CMS of 3,014,198.

If you take current sign-ups for the state based marketplaces — not including final sign-up totals for California and DC — and the HealthCare.gov states, so far overall enrollment is 96 percent of the 12.2 million who signed up last year despite the overwhelming challenges.

The table below walks through where each state currently stands but a couple of takeaways:

• Of the 9 states who have their own state based marketplaces and whose deadline has lapsed, 5 surpassed their totals from last year (CT, MA, MN, RI, WA) and according to CMS data, Colorado also surpassed their total from last year.
• Only states that concluded their enrollment periods on or near the new federal deadline of December 15 did not match their totals from last year; including Idaho, Maryland and Vermont. Note: Maryland extended their deadline to 12/22 two days before the 12/15 deadline.
• Last year, California and New York comprised about 60% of State Based Marketplace enrollment. Neither changed their final deadline for this year and both spent significant resources on outreach and advertising. The new enrollment totals for each state will be interesting indicators for how much new enrollments through HealthCare.gov were impacted by the lack of outreach and shortened open enrollment period. Overall, new enrollments for 2018 coverage for HealthCare.gov were about 82% of what they were for 2017.

* Colorado’s 2017 plan selection number of 161,568 is the final number that CMS released for Colorado plan selections; however, Colorado uses 172,361. The difference can be attributed to the date. CMS released numbers as of the final deadline of 1/31 while Colorado kept signing people up until 2/3. If using the 172,361 number, instead of being nearly 3% over last year, Colorado finished about 4% down. ** Maryland extended their 12/15 deadline until 12/22 two days before the final deadline. ***Final numbers have not been released for California (in-line extension), Washington, DC (extended until 2/5), Rhode Island or Vermont.

Here’s a quick reminder of where things stand on the federal marketplace:

• Nearly 8.8 million people signed up for health coverage through HealthCare.gov despite the shortened enrollment period and efforts by the Trump administration to undermine it. CMS released a final weekly enrollment snapshot on 12/28/2017 to capture additional enrollments that came in through December 23, as well as, any cancellations. Overall, there were 8,743,642 total plan selections during the fifth Open Enrollment period.
• Demand from new consumers this year outpaced new enrollments last year every single week with about 2.5 million new people signing up for coverage.
• Almost 6.3 million returning consumers actively renewed their coverage or were automatically re-enrolled compared to nearly 6.2 million people last year.