California likely to surprise us with big numbers

For California, we presently have data through the December 23rd. However, at the last minute, California extended its deadline to 12/27. This means that we are still waiting for four days of enrollment data! Keep in mind that just prior to the deadline, California was seeing 20,000 private plan enrollments daily.

It that rate continued unabated, we could be looking at as much as 80,000 signups beyond the 428,000 already registered. During the three days December 20–22nd more than 77,000 Californians enrolled in private plans. Granted, this is speculation – we won’t know until Covered California releases its figures.

An important develepmont is that Covered California extended its deadline for paying health insurance premiums to January 15th. Payment was originally due Monday the 6th. The extension also relieves pressure on insurers who were inundated with hundreds of thousands of new customers in December.

As part of its effort to reach minority uninsured, California has made paper applications available in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean.

Of particular importance are Hispanics, which account for 29 % of California’s population but almost half the state’s uninsured.