Thursday Short Cuts

• Uninsured rate keeps dropping as second open-enrollment period progresses

For each of the first two weeks, HC.gov has reported that the total QHP enrollments to data are split roughly evenly between new enrollees and renewals, which I find rather interesting; I was figuring that the early days would skew more heavily towards renewals, perhaps by a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio.

Part of this could simply be different states cancelling each other out--after all, all enrollees in both Nevada and Oregon, which were shifted over to HC.gov this year, are being categorized as "new" since the enrollees had to start over again; between the two states, that's up to around 110,000 current enrollees who would be listed as "new" even if they were re-enrolling...so it's possible that there are other states with a higher "renewal" ratio which is cancelling those two out.

However, it looks like this is limited at best, because the 50/50 split is being reported at the individual state level as well:

State officials in Florida, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri reported a similar mix of new applicants and returning customers during a call with reporters Wednesday organized by Families USA, which supports the federal healthcare law. 

• Shumlin to Unveil Single-Payer Plan Before the New Year

Gov. Peter Shumlin will release his single-payer financing plan before the end of the year, and will reveal the program’s health care benefits in the next two weeks, he said Wednesday.

Those two items will address questions that have been unanswered for nearly three years: What will single payer cover, and how will Vermont pay for it?

The governor also released a short video spotlighting an inequity in current health coverage, as the first step in a campaign to drum up public support for reform.

• Removing the glitches from the Affordable Care Act

Six years later, a guy who made less than $200 a month in 1991 writing software code in India has a company with multimillion-dollar contracts with Massachusetts for its insurance marketplace and the federal government to run the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) exchange. Last year, hCentive helped launch the successful, largely glitch-free exchanges in New York, Kentucky and Colorado — and its software continues to power them.

When ACA open enrollment started Oct. 1 last year, "everyone went to HealthCare.gov to see what it looked like," says Singh, 47. When they couldn't get on or found glitches, "the people working on that were making news. This time around, we don't want to be making news."

• Conn. Exchange Offers Four Plans that Don't Cover Abortion

Access Health CT, the state's healthcare marketplace, offers four plans that don't include coverage for elective abortion procedures.

Open enrollment for health insurance started last month and ends Feb. 15.

The Family Institute of Connecticut supports historically socially conservative stances and applauded the exchange for having so many choices for people who have moral objections to the procedure.

“We understand that not everyone shares that opinion but at least not to be forced to subsidize that is a very big deal," said Nicole Stacy, who works on policy for the Family Institute. "Before there were no options.”