California Hits 1 Million QHPs; 212% of Feb. Rate; 85% PAID.

There we go; I originally projected California to hit 1M last Tuesday or Wednesday, but didn't realize at the time just how bad the mid-February outage had hit the exchange. It ended up taking them 2 extra days to hit the 1M mark (Friday night). Fortunately, it looks like they've bounced back nicely:

Covered California’s enrollment reached the 1-million mark late Friday. By the end of Saturday, enrollment reached 1,018,315 in the health care exchange marketplace. The figure represents the number of people applying for coverage and selecting insurance plans for themselves and their family members through the exchange.

There's no Medicaid/CHIP info included, which is fine since this is just a milestone press release, not a formal enrollment report. What it does tell us is this: California, which was averaging 5,030/day in February, and 6,862/day for the first 9 days of March (about 36% ahead of February's rate), is now up to 10,670/day so far in March...more than 212% of their February rate. The Surge is happening.

In fact, that 10,670/day includes the full 14 days. If you only include the days from the 10th through the 15th, it's up to 15,747 per day, or more than triple the rate in February. 

Oh, yeah, and by the way...

Covered California announced last week that enrollment stood at more than 880,000 at the end of February and at 923,000 as of March 9. Insurance plans are reporting that nearly 85 percent of enrollees have paid their premiums, which is required for health care coverage to take effect. The enrollment figures are well above the exchange’s highest projections last fall of 696,000 in the first six-month enrollment period.