Covered California Enrollment Tops 1 Million
New York has yet to reach 700,000. Minnesota has barely broken 100,000. Ohio is struggling to reach 80,000. Oregon would be happy to obtain 40,000.
Those are health plan enrollment numbers from various state health exchanges, some of which have embraced the Affordable Care Act, others that have been more hostile to the reform law.
California is way ahead of every single one.
The Covered California insurance exchange announced earlier this week it has enrolled more than 1 million lives as it moves toward the end of the first open enrollment period on March 31.
The 1.01 million enrollments as of March 15 far exceeds even the most optimistic projections issued by Covered California last year that it would reach about 700,000 enrollments.
Enrollments throught he exchange has gained momentum in recent weeks, with about 87,000 obtaining coverage between March 9 and March 15, and 130,000 for the month so far.
“This is a historic threshold for our exchange, for the state of California and for the nation,” said Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee. “It speaks to the immense need for the Affordable Care Act and the millions of people who have been waiting for affordable coverage. We are pleased and privileged to be helping a million people find the peace of mind that comes with having insurance.”
The success in enrollment has been enjoyed by Covered California even though the exchange has hit some bumps trying to enroll Latinos. The exchange’s marketing campaign to Latinos has been criticized for being somewhat clumsy in terms of crossing cultural barriers.
California has been helped in recent weeks with a push by the federal government to boost ACA-related enrollments, including an appearance by President Barack Obama with comic Zach Galifianakis on the video streaming series “Funny or Die” to push more purchase of coverage by millenials.
Altogether, California's enrollments comprise about 20% of the nationwide total of about 5 million, even though the state represents about 10% of the U.S. population. The Obama Administration had projected as many as 7 million Americans would purchase health insurance through the exchanges, but its projections have been hampered by glitches in the federal healthcare.gov exchange that were not resolved until the end of November, keeping enrollments to a minimum for the first two months of the six-month open enrollment period.
Other pro-ACA states such as Oregon and Minnesota also struggled with website issues, causing their enrollments to be far lower than projected.
“California continues to lead the nation in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the numbers...illustrate strong progress in the push to expand healthcare coverage as we head into the final weeks of open enrollment,” said Patrick Johnston, president of the California Association of Health Plans.
Covered California is not planning on resting on its laurels. More than 600 enrollment events are planned statewide through March.
We’re not stopping at a million,” Lee said. “With two weeks remaining in open enrollment, we can’t help but think about the millions more in California who need insurance and may be missing out. We will keep driving home our message about getting covered and encouraging people to sign up now so they are not left out.”
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