MNsure continues to make progress on enrollment goals for 2018, officials said Friday, as the state’s health insurance exchange nears a deadline next week for January coverage.
(St. Paul, MN) -- More than 100-thousand Minnesota residents have enrolled in the state's MNSure health insurance purchasing exchange. And about 50-thousand families are expected to get average tax credits of 72-hundred dollars to help pay for their coverage. Credits are higher in southeast and southwest areas. MNSure C-E-O Allison O'Toole says they can make the difference between "unhealthy and healthy" for thousands of people -- and yet, she says too many residents are not taking advantage. The open enrollment for MNSure runs through January 14th -- and O'Toole says that for at least a couple years, the tax credits will remain in place regardless of what happens to Obamacare in Congress.
That's the enitre article...it's dated yesterday (11/24), so I'm assuming the 100K figure was as of Thursday evening (Thanksgiving, Nov. 23rd).
More than 91,000 Minnesotans have Enrolled in Private Health Plans through MNsure for 2018
November 15, 2017
ST. PAUL, Minn.—Today, MNsure announced 91,623 Minnesotans have enrolled in private health plan coverage for 2018 through MNsure.
The numbers reported include new consumers, renewing consumers who have come back and shopped for a new plan for 2018, and renewing consumers who are continuing their previous plan for 2018.
"Our first two weeks have gone very smoothly," said CEO Allison O'Toole. "MNsure's enrollment is looking strong out of the gate. This year, we renewed twice as many people into coverage than last year, and we're also seeing a steady stream of new consumers."
Press release from MNsure, Minnesota's ACA exchange:
MNsure update on first week of open enrollment
ST. PAUL—MNsure CEO, Allison O’Toole, issued the following statement recapping the first full week of open enrollment:
“The first seven days of this year’s open enrollment period have gone smoothly. We are off to a strong start and doing a steady business of enrolling Minnesotans in health care coverage. Market disruptions last year— including a large jump in premiums, a major carrier pulling out of the market, the first year of enrollment caps as well as other factors—drove large numbers of consumers to our doors in the first few days of last year’s enrollment period. This year, we are seeing a much steadier flow of traffic to the website that is more in line with what we would expect. Call wait times have been consistently low throughout this first week.”
This year, MNsure renewed more people into coverage than ever before. Open enrollment figures will be released next Wednesday at MNsure’s public board meeting.
In a year when every state's 2018 Open Enrollment situation is messy to say the least, Minnesota's is far more so:
Last year they were facing massive rate hikes, especially for unsubsidized enrollees (yeah, I know, I know, don't say it), and came very close to having all of their carriers bail
In response, they agreed to let most of them put a maximum enrollment cap on a First Come First Serve, with Blue Plus (BCBSMN) agreeing to take the "overflow".
However, the unsubsidized individual market enrollees were royally screwed, so the state legislature and governor slapped together a special, one-time 25% premium rebate specifically for them. The money came directly out of other portions of the state general fund, I believe. MNsure, the state exchange, also added an extra 8-day special enrollment period for these folks to jump in and get in on the rebate.
This got them over the 2017 hump, but clearly it was a sloppy, stopgap measure only, so earlier this year Minnesota decided to take advantage of the ACA's 1332 Waiver provision, which allows states to make significant changes to how they implement the ACA as long as the changes can be proven to provide at least as many people with similarly comprehensive coverage without increasing the federal deficit in the process...a provision which (former) HHS Secretary Tom Price encouraged states to do.
For 2017, unsubsidized enrollees on the Minnesota individual market faced massive rate hikes averaging 57%. It was so bad that the only way they could convince some carriers to participate in the market was to allow most of them to put a cap on how many people they'd enroll (with the balance being shunted over to Blue Plus, the HMO division of BCBSMN). This resulted in a massive initial surge of enrollment, as it was on a first-come, first-serve basis...but also left off-exchange and unsubsidized exchange enrollees high and dry.
In response, the state scrambled to pull together a $300 million package to help supplement premiums for those folks...knocking a flat 25% off of their premiums for 2017. This helped ease the problem in the short term, but the larger issue still loomed going forward.
Of the 31 states which have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, only a handful issue regular monthly or weekly enrollment reports.
I noted in February that enrollment in the ACA's Medicaid expansion program had increased by around 35,000 people across just 4 states (LA, MI, MN & PA).
It's early June now, so I checked in once more, and the numbers have continued to grow. I have the direct links for 5 states now (including New Hampshire)...
You may have noticed that among my 16 recommendations for repairing/improving the ACA, I foolishly failed to include one of the most important/obvious ones: Reinsurance. I didn't include it for two reasons: Partly because, quite frankly, I simply forgot about it and feel bad about myself now.
So far, two states (Alaska and Minnesota) have already established their own state-based reinsurance programs; in both cases, it was done as an act of sheer desperation...and, in both cases were put through in a bipartisan fashion (both states have GOP-held legislatures, but Minnesota's Governor is Democratic while Alaska's is Independent):
There was a time, just a few months ago, when it looked like Alaska, which had already suffered from massive rate hikes the past 2 years due to their unique healthcare situation, might have a complete catastrophe on their hands with a third year of massive individual market rate hikes.
Of the 31 states which have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, only a handful issue regular monthly or weekly enrollment reports.
Back on February 28th I noted that ACA Medicaid expansion enrollment across three states (Michigan, Louisiana and Pennsylvania) had grown by about 35,000 people since mid-January, to 667K, 406K and 716K people respectively.
Today, a month later, I decided to take another look at all three states, along with Minnesota (which I forgot to check last month). Sure enough, enrollment has continued to grow in all four, albeit at a slower pace:
