As the end of the first open enrollment period nears, Marilyn Tavenner, Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), just announced that approximately 4 million people have signed up for a private health insurance plan through the Federal and State-based Marketplaces since October 1. While no report was released with additional details, a full report is expected to be available in Mid-March.
Prior to this positive enrollment news, HHS had previously released the fourth in a series of issue briefs highlighting national and state-level enrollment-related information for the Health Insurance Marketplace. This new set of enrollment data for October 1– February 1, 2014 indicated a few key trends.
- There was a 53 percent increase enrollment in January alone. More than 1.14 million people signed up for health plans in January through the new insurance marketplace. Since the beginning of the open enrollment period, 3.3 million people signed up for private health insurance through federal and state insurance exchanges.
- The latest enrollment data give more detail on the demographic breakdown of exchange enrollees. The age distribution of exchange enrollees has been of particular interest due to the concern over the uptake rate among “young invincibles” and the need to have younger individuals enrolled in the marketplaces to help balance the costs of older enrollees. Young adults (18-35) made up 27 percent of the enrollees in January, compared to 24 percent of those signing up from October through December. The rate of signups among young people grew by 65 percent in January, compared to 55 percent for all other age groups combined.
- Of the 3.3 million overall signups through January, 55 percent are female and 45 percent are male.
- Additionally, an estimated 3.2 million people have been determined or assessed eligible for Medicaid/CHIP by the marketplace. This number does not include those who applied directly to state Medicaid/CHIP agencies.
For additional information and the most up-to-date enrollment numbers from the states, visit the Kaiser Family Foundation’s State Marketplace Statistics.
