ACA enrollment surges in first few days

The first few days of open enrollment on the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges saw more than 600,000 people sign up for coverage, up 79 percent from last year and setting a new record start for enrollment on Healthcare.gov.

Of the 601,462 plan selections, 137,332 were new customers along with 464,140 who actively renewed their coverage—not consumers who may be automatically re-enrolled into a plan. In all, the applications submitted cover more than 1.35 million people.

Enrollment is expected to drop by up to 13 percent due to a combination of moves by CMS and HHS—such as reducing the open enrollment period to 45 days and slashing the advertising budget for the exchanges by 90 percent—along with hikes in premiums averaging 34 percent for the most popular plans and confusion amongst customers who have likely heard more about unsuccessful attempts to repeal the ACA than about how to sign up for coverage.

For outside groups supporting the enrollment efforts, the initial surge in signups shows customers still want health insurance and are finding affordable options.

“There’s only five weeks to go before the final deadline of December 15 and we want to keep up this momentum, so we’ve got a lot of work to do to enroll even more people,” said Lori Lodes, the former communications director for CMS under the Obama administration who now leads the group Get America Covered. “If the administration were doing everything they could to help people enroll, instead of undermining the law every chance they get, imagine how many more people would be signing up right now.”

State-based exchanges have also seen a greater number of sign-ups. Covered California said 5,900 people enrolled in coverage on the first day of open enrollment, a 25 percent increase over last year. The Providence Journal reported Rhode Island’s HealthSourceRI had 640 people sign up for coverage during the first week, up from 126 the year prior.

Customers may have found several insurance options where the ACA’s premium support subsidies drives the monthly cost down to $0. Analyses by the Kaiser Family Foundation have said in more than 1,500 counties, a 40-year-old making $25,000 annually could pay no premium for the lowest-cost bronze-level plan. For the uninsured, more than 50 percent who are subsidy-eligible could find a bronze plan for $0 per month, a Nov. 9 Kaiser study said, and another 16 percent would find their premiums would be less than the penalty under the ACA’s individual mandate.

For those shopping on the individual market who don’t qualify for subsidies, however, insurance brokers said the options are anything but affordable.

“The plans are horrible and they can't afford a decent plan based on their income," Ronnell Nolan, president and CEO of Health Agents of America, told USA Today. "Why does a health plan cost over $2,000 for the absolutely worse plan you can buy?"