Delaware Update: 400% increase since 12/12; Medicaid up 3.7x

It looks like the exchanges are starting to become more sensitive to the distinction between paid and unpaid enrollments; Delaware is the 5th state exchange to start separating these numbers out (or perhaps the media is just starting to do so based on the numbers released). In any event, depending on how you look at it, Delaware's private enrollments have gone up either 44% or 400% since the 793 enrolled as of December 12, and Medicaid enrollees have gone up 3.7x the 1,822 that it stood at as of 11/30.

Delaware officials reported Thursday that 1,145 people have enrolled in the state’s new health insurance exchange and paid their first premiums under the federal health care reform law.

The 1,145 paid enrollees are among 3,183 people who, as of Jan. 3, had chosen one of the health care plans offered on the exchange, suggesting that most of those who have chosen plans have not yet paid for coverage.

Meanwhile, federal officials have identified 5,732 Delawareans as potentially eligible for Medicaid coverage, including under an expanded Medicaid program that Delaware adopted in conjunction with the Affordable Care Act. State officials are still trying to complete final eligibility determinations for those individuals.

Separately, officials said 1,058 other Delawareans have qualified under Delaware’s Medicaid expansion, which boosts the income threshold for eligibility.