Colorado: Final OE4 enrollments: 172.3K QHPs

The official enrollment report won't actually be released until a little later, but Connect for Health Colorado just posted the following: (it's dated 2/03 but just went live on their site today):

CEO Blog: End of Open Enrollment Update

Posted on Friday, February 3, 2017

Today marks the end of our fourth and by far most successful Open Enrollment period. The number of plan selections ran 12% ahead of last year’s pace and the volume of last-minute customers Monday and Tuesday led us to extend sign-ups for three days for those who started the process before Tuesday’s deadline.

I share this information with extreme gratitude to our dedicated staff, our Assistance Network, our Broker partners, our health insurance company partners and the many other supportive stakeholders who helped us move forward with our shared mission no matter the headwinds we encountered along the way.

There's no specific number listed, but last year's official Open Enrollment Period QHP selection total for Colorado was 150,759 people.

If they signed up 12% more than that this year, that would be roughly 168,850 QHP selections total.

UPDATE: OK, the official press release is out and it's actually a bit higher yet:

Connect for Health Colorado® Sets Record Number of Healthcare Plan Selections for 2017 Coverage During Open Enrollment 

DENVER —  More than 175,000 Coloradans selected healthcare coverage for 2017 through the state health insurance Marketplace during the three-month open enrollment period that ended Friday, a rate 12 percent ahead of signups one year ago, according to new data released today by Connect for Health Colorado®.

“We are extremely pleased with the number of Coloradans who took the important step to protect their health -- both their physical and financial health -- by choosing coverage through our shopping portal,” said Connect for Health Colorado CEO Kevin Patterson.  “The steady growth we have seen in each of our open enrollment periods shows we are making valuable progress in providing affordable health insurance to a growing number of individuals and families in Colorado.”

Since November 1, Coloradans selected 175,964 medical and/or dental insurance plans (172,361 were medical plan selections) through Connect for Health Colorado. More than one in four (27 percent) of the plan selections were made by customers new to the Marketplace. The other 73 percent are renewing customers.

Sixty-two percent of Connect for Health Colorado customers this year qualify for financial assistance — which will average $371 per month, per household — to pay their medical insurance premium.

Anyone whose 2016 coverage was not available for 2017 has another month — through March 1 — to select health insurance for this year.

The sign up deadline was extended from Tuesday, Jan. 31, to Friday, Feb. 3, to help customers who were part of a last minute surge of plan selections. Coloradans who experience a qualifying life change event, such as marriage, divorce, having a child, losing your employer-sponsored insurance, or those moving into Colorado, have 60 days from that event to enroll in new coverage for 2017.

Thankfully, they're making sure to distinguish QHPs from standalone dental plans.

Interestingly, while the CO exchange claims this is 12% higher than last year, the official ASPE report for 2016 had the QHP tally at 150,769, which would mean they're actually up 14.3% year over year. Huh.

As I noted the other day, this adds more evidence to suggest that Trump killing the final HC.gov ads hurt enrollment on the federal exchange.