Washington State: Paid QHPs up 3,200, but Unpaid DOWN 10K; cleanup in progress?

An interesting, if somewhat disappointing update from Washington State this evening. Paid QHPs are up 3,204 from 3/06 - 3/13 to 112,225, but this still leaves WA at 63% of their February rate for March so far (granted this is better than the 54% they were at through last week).

More interestingly, the number of unpaid enrollments has dropped from 82,060 down to 71,787...a reduction of 10,273 people.

What this means is that even if all 3,200 of the paid enrollees are "conversions" (enrollees actually paying for their policies), that still leaves over 7,000 people who are apparently being, as deaconblues put it, "purged" from the list. I'm guessing that these are mostly people from last fall or early this winter who let their final payment deadline expire without paying.

None of the unpaid enrollees are counted officially by WA in their HHS submissions anyway (the only state that does their reporting this way, as far as I know), so it won't impact the final HHS numbers, but it's worth noting in light of all the "How many have PAID???" fuss and bother. In any event, by lopping off these 10K people, Washington's Paid percentage has moved up from 57% to 61%...and in doing so has raised the overall Paid average among the 9 states that separte them out up to 81% (most industry experts are giving 85% as the apparent overall average).

On the Medicaid side, Strict Expansion enrollees have climbed from 222,607 to 235,079 (up 12,472), while Woodworkers have gone up from 115,159 to 122,302 (up 7,143).

Updated enrollment numbers from Oct. 1 to March 13 are included below.

Qualified Health Plans: 112,225

Medicaid Newly Eligible Adults: 235,079

Medicaid Previously Eligible but not Enrolled: 122,302

Qualified Health Plan Applicants – Need to Pay: 71,787