Obamacare enrollments surging, HealthCare.gov working better

[babylonsister]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/19/1256749/-Obamacare-enrollments-surging-HealthCare-gov-working-better

Tue Nov 19, 2013 at 09:32 AM PST
Obamacare enrollments surging, HealthCare.gov working better

by Joan McCarter


This should be the day's leading Obamacare news: enrollments across the country are surging, coming in ahead of projections in states across the country.

"What we are seeing is incredible momentum," said Peter Lee, director of Covered California, the nation's largest state insurance marketplace, which accounted for a third of all enrollments nationally in October. California—which enrolled about 31,000 people in health plans last month—nearly doubled that in the first two weeks of this month.

Several other states, including Connecticut and Kentucky, are outpacing their enrollment estimates, even as states that depend on the federal website lag far behind. In Minnesota, enrollment in the second half of October ran at triple the rate of the first half, officials said. Washington state is also on track to easily exceed its October enrollment figure, officials said.

Enrollments are moving at a faster clip than during October in these, despite the fact that some people are confused by the problems the federal site has had, not sure if the sites in their own states are working. Covered California's director said that the state has had to change its marketing to remind people that the state site wasn't the same as the federal site, and was working just fine.

Unfortunately, so far enrollments on the federal site are still lagging. For example, just 2,991 people in Texas were able to complete enrollment in October, fewer than Kentucky, which has a sixth of Texas' population. But there's better news on the federal site front today, as well. HealthCare.gov is now working for 90 percent of users who have tried again to sign up. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updated reporters Monday with the news that the site was functioning better, and that it had sent out 275,000 emails to people who had started to create accounts, but couldn't get through the process. CMS says that 90 percent of those people who tried again got all the way through the process. So far in November, 50,000 people have selected a plan in the federal site, up from 27,000 for the entire month of October.

Many people are likely still in window-shopping mode, and enrollments should pick up even more—both on the state sites and the federal site—in the last week or two before the December 15 deadline for insurance to be in place on January 1, and then again in February and March before the final deadline. The Massachusetts experience provides the best model for enrollment patterns, and in the first four months of enrollment just about one-fifth of the uninsured population enrolled.

The people will come. They're not freaked out over what most people perceive as inevitable: a problematic new government program. They're not abandoning support for the program in droves. They're not calling for an end to the program. They're patient enough to give it time to work, even if Republicans and the traditional media are not.

[global1]

1. I Recently Signed Up For Medicare And I Had A Window Of Time With Which To Do That.....

I visited the Medicare Website a number of times and did a lot of due diligence in calling healthcare insurance companies to find the best Medicare Supplement Plan for myself - the one that gave me the best coverage; was affordable and from a company that provided good customer service. I determined the best company by checking the internet for reviews; by calling in and checking out their phone systems and talking with their representatives to see how helpful they were; and picking the plan that was the best my money could buy and not necessarily the cheapest.

Bottom line I used the window of time I had to educate myself and do good due diligence.

So I'm not bother that people have not signed up yet. I'm thinking a lot of the people are doing good due diligence for themselves for ACA. As long as they have time - they should use it to their advantage. There's no need to sign up immediately.

As their window for signing up gets closer - I'm sure more and more of them will be signing up.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

2. Just checked rates (step before "enroll" ). It wasn't too bad... You have to answer a

zillion questions first and some of it's a bit confusing. It reminded me of reading assembly
instructions that you know were translated from a foreign language.

The very lowest rate, Bronze, was the same as what my husband pays with his employer to add me (around $450/mo). But, since they pick up the $6,000 annual deductible....we are better off where we are. Some of the premiums were as high as $1100/mo.

No tax credit

[Cha]

3. the US corporatemediawhores will go dead silence..

Thanks for the news babylonsistah~

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. Not so sure about that.

They'll just make shit up instead.

[Cha]

5. Yeah, there's

that. When they aren't ignoring the good news about Dems and PBO.. they're busy making shit up.