Record Demand for Obamacare

There was record demand for coverage during the final week of Open Enrollment for 2018 at HealthCare.gov. This was the biggest week in Open Enrollment history with demand for affordable coverage far outpacing previous Open Enrollment periods for January 1 coverage. Overall, CMS announced that 8.8 million new and returning HealthCare.gov consumers signed up for health coverage through the December 15th final deadline, plus those who were automatically enrolled.

Despite the Trump administration’s decisions to cut the Open Enrollment period in half and to stop the majority of outreach, this year’s final number for the federal marketplace is currently 96% of the 9.2 million who signed up as of January 31 last year. Taking a closer look at the state data, 11 states out-performed their total enrollments for last year; including, Kentucky, Hawaii, Nebraska, North Dakota, Iowa, Nevada, South Dakota, Oregon, Missouri, Wyoming and Kansas.

Important to remember that these numbers will change. The snapshot does not include December 15 sign-ups between 12am and 3am, people in line with the call center or people in states impacted by the hurricanes and other extreme weather (including all of Florida and many counties in Texas) who have until December 31 to sign up. In addition, returning consumers whose plans were canceled and were not able to be re-enrolled or were re-enrolled into a plan they do not want can come back until March 1 and some people who were automatically re-enrolled may choose to cancel their plans.

What’s most impressive is that demand from new consumers outpaced new enrollments last year every single week. This year, 2.4 million new consumers signed up compared to 2.05 million last year at a similar point (end of Week 7). Overall, 27 percent of all plan selections this year were from new consumers. Last year, new enrollment continued for an additional 45 days through January 31st.

CMS also announced that overall 6.4 million returning consumers actively renewed or were automatically re-enrolled in health coverage for 2018. Unfortunately, CMS did not release a breakdown between active renewals and automatic renewals. But based on the totals provided for new consumers, it is likely that a record setting number of people came back to HealthCare.gov and actively renewed their plans for January 1 coverage.

It’s also worth noting that State Based Marketplaces (SBMs) are running ahead of where they were last year. Already, with current SBM announcements, there are approximately 2.8 million people who enrolled through December 17th this year compared to the 2.7 million that had enrolled last year. Most of the state marketplaces have extended their deadlines; including California and New York with enrollment deadlines on January 31. State marketplaces have also seen a similar increase in consumer demand this year despite most states not cutting their enrollment periods in half and continuing their robust outreach campaigns. Only three State Based Marketplaces (Colorado, New York and Washington) have posted enrollment numbers through 12/15, but all three show significant increases in total enrollment ranging from 7% to 35% more than last year — similar to what we’re seeing in the federal Marketplace. Additionally, while 12/15 enrollment data is not available, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island and have all been outpacing last year.

This Open Enrollment period proves, once again, that people want and need the health and financial security that comes with health coverage through the ACA marketplaces.

* CMS did not release final numbers for January 1 coverage since they did not include 1) enrollment from 12 am — 3 am ET on 12/16; 2) people who enrolled via an in-line extension; and 3) some states have extensions until 12/31 because of the hurricanes and other extreme weather. ** Last year, CMS broke out auto-enrollment and active renewal. We’ve added 2.2 million auto-renewals to the OE4 Total and returning numbers based on data CMS released last year on January 4.

Week 7: Cumulative Totals and Daily Averages

*Last year, CMS released bi-weekly snapshots instead of weekly. Weekly numbers for OE4 use total weekly enrollment from the Public Use Files and new and returning enrollment is derived from the new\returning split in the corresponding bi-weekly snapshot. ** Last year, CMS broke out auto-enrollment and active renewal. We’ve added 2.2 million auto-renewals to the OE4 Total and returning numbers based on data CMS released last year on January 4.

Open Enrollment 7: Weekly Comparison

* CMS processed auto-enrollments the same week and did not break out new and returning enrollments

NOTE: Weekly numbers for OE4 use total weekly enrollment from the Public Use Files and new and returning enrollment is derived from the new\returning split in the corresponding biweekly snapshot.

State-by-State Comparison

Every state showed enrollment growth over last year at a similar point in time. As mentioned earlier, 12 states out-performed their total enrollments for last year; including, Kentucky, Hawaii, Nebraska, North Dakota, Iowa, Nevada, South Dakota, Oregon, Missouri, Wyoming and Kansas. 35 states were reached 90% or more of their total enrollments last year.

Previous snapshot analysis included a week-by-week comparison but CMS did not release weekly data without auto-enrollment.