Vermont has been pretty much on radio silence for the past two years. They issued fairly regular enrollment data reports in 2014 and 2015, but last year there was nary a peep; the only mid-season enrollment report with Vermont data was the official one released by CMS in early January.
I was, therefore, pretty happy to see a link to their "2018 Open Enrollment Update" posted earlier this afternoon.
Unfortunately...
Open Enrollment Countdown: Just 15 Days Left to Sign up for 2018 Health Coverage
Customer Support Center to Open Next Two Saturdays (9am-1pm)
Nothing official yet, but New York-based Politico healthcare reporter Dan Goldberg just tweeted this out:
@charles_gaba new ny numbers out. 46,000 new enrollees. 13 percent ahead of last year’s pace. 31,500 in essential plan. Numbers through end of November
Unfortunately, a lot of the state-based exchanges have an annoying habit of not posting renewal numbers until after the enrollment period is over (including the biggest one, California), but this is still helpful. Also handy to have the early BHP enrollment numbers.
A couple of weeks ago, a joint letter was sent to all four Congressional leaders from AHIP (America's Health Insurance Plans), the BlueCross BlueShield Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the AMA, the American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitalsm warning them, in no uncertain terms, of what the consequences of repealing the individual mandate would be:
We join together to urge Congress to maintain the individual mandate. There will be serious consequences if Congress simply repeals the mandate while leaving the insurance reforms in place: millions more will be uninsured or face higher premiums, challenging their ability to access the care they need. Let’s work together on solutions that deliver the access, care, and coverage that the American people deserve.
Thank you for your letter regarding funding for the Navigator program. I appreciate hearing from you on this issue. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires each Health Insurance Exchange (whether Federally-facilitated or state-based) to have a Navigator program to, among other things, help facilitate enrollment of individuals in qualified health plans (QHPs) through the Exchange.
The Washington Health Benefit Exchange today announced that nearly 18,000 new customers have used Washington Healthplanfinder to select 2018 health coverage through the first four weeks of open enrollment. The number of new customers who have signed up since Nov. 1 represents a 43 percent increase over the same period last year.
In addition to the 4,500 new sign-ups received on average each week, Washington Healthplanfinder has experienced an 18 percent increase in visits to the website, with more than 423,000 visitors reviewing their coverage options on www.wahealthplanfinder.org.
Additional data revealing increased consumer interest during open enrollment:
Collins' bill with Nelson would set aside $4.5 billion over two years to help states establish reinsurance programs. Reinsurance directly compensates insurance carriers for their most expensive customers.
To the best of my knowledge, that's...pretty much all it does: $2.25 billion per year for two years, and then...that's it. If there's more to the bill than that, I'll revise this post, but in the meantime, that seems to be the whole bill.
All eyes are on the Godawful Tax Scam Bill this week, which once again lies mostly in the hands of a handful of Republican Senators including the usual suspects like John McCain, Lisa Murkwoski and Susan Collins.
McCain's biggest beef this year has been about "following regular order"; it's the reason he shot down the GOP's #BCRAP bill last summer. Of coruse, current tax bill most certainly isn't following regular order either. Will he stick to his guns on the issue or cave under pressure this time? Who knows?
In week four of Open Enrollment for 2018, 504,181 people selected plans using the HealthCare.gov platform. As in past years, enrollment weeks are measured Sunday through Saturday.
It's finally here, and just in the nick of time for the U.S. Senate's big vote on whether to scrap the Individual Mandate or not.
In around 15 minutes, I guarantee that you’ll understand how the ACA’s 3-legged stool works and why the Individual Mandate, while being about as popular as a root canal, still serves an important function. Don’t forget the popcorn!
(Oh, and if you'd like to help support my work, please feel free to do so via either my Patreon or GoFundMe accounts, thanks!)
Given the whole Silver Load/Silver Switcharoo craziness, I was mildly surprised to see that the ratio between Bronze, Silver and Gold have barely changed year over year, and in fact Silver has inched upward by a few points...until I remembered that Colorado is among the few states which went with the "broad load" model, spreading the additional CSR cost across all metal levels both on and off the exchange. This makes the similar metal level spread more understandable, but it also makes the 25% enrollment increase even more surprising, since subsidized enrollees will pay pretty much the same (no more or less) than this year, but unsubsidized enrollees are seeing their rates shoot up no matter where they go. As you can see below, the average premiums for unsubsidized enrollees ("NFA" = "Non-Financial Assistance) is 36.6% higher this year than last.
