Feds say 365,000 Americans selected plans in the online Marketplace

WASHINGTON – Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today that nearly 365,000 individuals have selected plans from the state and federal Marketplaces by the end of November. November alone added more than a quarter million enrollees in state and federal Marketplaces. Enrollment in the federal Marketplace in November was more than four times greater than October’s reported federal enrollment number.

Since October 1, 1.9 million have made it through another critical step, the eligibility process, by applying and receiving an eligibility determination, but have not yet selected a plan.  An additional 803,077 were determined or assessed eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in October and November by the Health Insurance Marketplace.

“Evidence of the technical improvements to HealthCare.gov can be seen in the enrollment numbers.  More and more Americans are finding that quality, affordable coverage is within reach and that they’ll no longer need to worry about barriers they may have faced in the past – like being denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition,” Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. “Now is the time to visit HealthCare.gov, to ensure you and your family have signed up in a private plan of your choice by December 23 for coverage starting January 1. It’s important to remember that this open enrollment period is six months long and continues to March 31, 2014.”

The HHS issue brief highlights the following key findings, which are among many newly available data reported today on national and state-level enrollment-related information:

• November’s federal enrollment number outpaced the October number by more than four times.
• Nearly 1.2 million Americans, based only on the first two months of open enrollment, have selected a plan or had a Medicaid or CHIP eligibility determination;
  • Of those, 364,682 Americans selected plans from the state and federal Marketplaces; and
  • 803,077 Americans were determined or assessed eligible for Medicaid or CHIP by the Health Insurance Marketplace.
• 39.1 million visitors have visited the state and federal sites to date.
• There were an estimated 5.2 million calls to the state and federal call centers.

The report groups findings by state and federal marketplaces.  In some cases only partial datasets were available for state marketplaces.  The report features cumulative data for the two month period because some people apply, shop, and select a plan across monthly reporting periods.  These counts avoid potential duplication associated with monthly reporting.  For example, if a person submitted an application in October, and then selected a Marketplace plan in November, this person would only be counted once in the cumulative data.

To read today’s report visit: http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/2013/MarketPlaceEnrollment/Dec2013/ib_2013dec_enrollment.pdf