Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pace Of Health Law Sign-Ups Dips In Third Week, But Percentage Of New Enrollees Creeps Up
The number of Americans signing up for health-care plans under the Affordable Care Act continues to run ahead of last year in states relying on the federal insurance exchange, according to federal figures released Wednesday that span nearly half of an abbreviated enrollment season. Between the start of the current sign-up period on Nov. 1 and Saturday, nearly 2.28 million people chose health-care plans for the coming year 鈥 slightly more than during the first four weeks of the ACA enrollment period a year ago, reports from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show. (Goldstein, 11/22)
The pace slowed in the third week of enrollment for 2018 Obamacare individual insurance as nearly 800,000 people signed up through the federal government website HealthCare.gov, down about 75,000 people from the previous week, a U.S. government agency reported on Wednesday. There was an increase, however, in the number of new consumers to the program created by former President Barack Obama, to 220,323 from 208,397 in the previous week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said. (Hummer, 11/22)
In more enrollment news聽鈥
Small business owners and middle-class individuals buying health insurance in New Hampshire have been warned for months that soaring premiums were in the offing for 2018. But once the open enrollment period began earlier this month and they took to 鈥渟hopping鈥 for the limited options on the Obamacare exchange, the numbers were still eye-popping. (Landrigan, 11/23)
Members who have health care insurance with Minuteman Health have just been given three more months to select a new plan. Insurance Commissioner Roger Sevigny announced the new deadline of March 1 for the 20,000 who were insured by the Massachusetts-based health plan that has withdrawn from the market starting this Jan. 1. Sevigny explained that the circumstances of Minuteman鈥檚 exodus qualify the members for an extended open enrollment. (Landrigan, 11/23)
A recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation found about 4.5 million people nationwide, or 42 percent of the 10.7 million eligible to purchase coverage on the exchange, could get a bronze-level plan at no cost. Bronze plans typically carry lower premiums than silver and gold plans offered on the exchange. (Candisky, 11/26)
