California: 144K *new* QHP enrollments thru 12/15, 216K added to Medicaid

THIS JUST IN...

As CoveredCA has noted before, they have no plans on posting renewed policy enrollments until January, but this at least gives data on the new additions:

COVERED CALIFORNIA AND DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES RELEASE EARLY RESULTS FOR FIRST MONTH OF OPEN ENROLLMENT THROUGH HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGE

Demand for Coverage Continues to Be Strong, with Applications Submitted for More Than 592,000 People Through Dec. 15

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — More than 592,000 people sought coverage and were determined eligible for private health insurance and eligible or likely eligible for Medi-Cal in the first month of open enrollment, Covered California and the California Department of Health Care Services announced Wednesday.

The consumers, who applied for coverage through Covered California since open enrollment began on Nov. 15, include 157,361 eligibility determinations and an additional 144,178 plan selections for private coverage, as well as 216,423 enrollments into Medi-Cal coverage and 74,965 who are likely eligible for Medi-Cal. So far in 2014, Medi-Cal has enrolled more than 2.2 million consumers.

“We saw tremendous momentum during the first month of open enrollment, with more than 25,000 people completing enrollment on Monday alone,” Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee said. “This is further proof of the great demand that Californians have for quality, affordable health care coverage. With only two months to sign up, all Californians should be considering their options now so they can get covered in 2015.”

...The data Covered California released today relate to new enrollment only since open enrollment began on Nov. 15. Data about those consumers renewing their 2014 coverage will be released sometime in early 2015.

Again, until hard renewal numbers are released (and I'm not sure how CoveredCA plans on not releasing those numbers until January when the HHS Dept. says they'll be releasing their monthly report--including state-by-state breakdowns...next week?), I'll operate on the assumption that renewals are running at least at a 1:1 ratio, which means a bare minimum of 288K total enrollments through 12/15.

Also, a few other important CA tidbits:

More than 144,000 California's have signed up for #obamacare plans, and half have already paid, says @CoveredCA.

— Tami Luhby (@Luhby) December 17, 2014

.@CoveredCA says it is on track to meet goal of covering an additional 500K, on top of 1.2M from enrolled in 2014. #ObamaCare

— Tami Luhby (@Luhby) December 17, 2014

New feature on @CoveredCA: you can pay when you sign up for health plan. Solves some of the problems that plagued #ObamaCare last year.

— Tami Luhby (@Luhby) December 17, 2014