More than 39,000 people in Kansas selected plans through the Health Insurance Marketplace leading up to the Dec. 15 deadline for coverage beginning Jan. 1, according to a report released today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
About 80 percent of Kansans who selected health insurance plans in the first month of open enrollment were determined eligible for financial assistance to lower their monthly premiums, compared to 74 percent who selected plans over a similar period last year, the report stated.
Of the 39,023 Kansans who selected a plan, 47 percent re-enrolled in a marketplace plan in 2015 and 53 percent signed up for the first time.
Today’s report provides the first detailed analysis of enrollment in the Marketplaces for the first month of the 2015 open enrollment period.
Because the automatic reenrollment process for the 37 states using the HealthCare.gov platform (including Kansas) began on Dec. 16 and was completed for the vast majority of consumers on Dec. 18, today’s report with data through Dec. 15 does not fully capture the number of people who selected plans leading up to the deadline for Jan. 1, 2015, coverage.
“We’re pleased that in Kansas 39,023 people signed up for marketplace coverage during the first month of open enrollment. The vast majority were able to lower their costs even further by getting tax credits, making a difference in the bottom lines of so many families,” HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said. “Interest in the marketplace has been strong during the first month of open enrollment. We still have a ways to go and a lot of work to do before February 15, but this is an encouraging start.”
Nationwide, more than 4 million people signed up for the first time or reenrolled in coverage for 2015 during the first month of open enrollment. That includes more than 3.4 million people who selected a plan in the 37 states that are using the HealthCare.gov platform for 2015 (including Kansas), and more than 600,000 consumers who selected plans in the 14 states that are operating their own Marketplace platform for 2015.
HHS also released a Weekly Enrollment Snapshot that captures more recent enrollment activity in the marketplace. The Weekly Snapshot shows that from Nov. 15 to Dec. 26, nearly 6.5 million consumers selected a plan or were automatically reenrolled.