Rhode Island: Net QHPs either -7.9% or +1.4% since April

NOTE: In light of some serious discussion with IBD's Jed Graham and a lot of thought afterwards, I've decided to run the "attrition" numbers two ways: "Current vs. April Paid" and "Current vs. April Total", for reasons I'll explain soon.

The main thrust of this article is general hand-wringing over how the state of Rhode Island plans on funding their ACA exchange after this year, although it's a bit confusing since it sounds like the problem has nothing to do with having the funding and everything to do with having permission to use it:

Enrollment starts on Nov. 15.

Not long after, the state will have to make its own big decision: how to finance the exchange.

Of the $23.4 million in federal funds budgeted for HealthSource RI this year, only $1,353,570 has been spent so far. The state anticipates — but does not yet have — federal permission to spend any of the remaining dollars after Dec. 31.

However, there's one data point that pops up smack in the middle of my current "mini-project", trying to lock down the current QHP enrollments in each state:

As of Oct. 4, there were 26,245 Rhode Islanders enrolled in “commercial health plans” through the exchange.

Blammo! Add it to the list!

Rhode Island's 4/19/14 gross QHP total was 28,485, and they're on the record as stating that 91% of those paid up, or 25,879.

That means that depending on how you look at it, RI currently has either 1.4% more enrolled or 7.9% fewer enrolled than they did on April 19th.

Either way, not bad at all.

But wait, there's more! Here's a second article which discusses the same topic, and which also has another interesting QHP data point:

From the exchange’s Oct. 1, 2013, launch through Aug. 2, reported RIPEC, 26,686 people enrolled in individual health insurance plans on HealthSource RI, about 39.3 percent of the total individual market in the state, the exchange estimated.

In the same time frame, 262 employers enrolled in the Small Business Health Options Program, 258 of which have paid for their plans. The vast majority of these, 96.5 percent, employ no more than 25 staff members. A total of 1,821 lives were covered through those plans.

Considering that the last data point I have for SHOP enrollments in Rhode Island was 1,110 way back in March, 1,821 is actually pretty good!