Implementing Health Reform: The October Exchange Enrollment Report

Abstract

On November 13, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services released its first monthly enrollment report for the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges. The report is full of numbers, but two are certain to make the headlines: Only 106,185 persons selected a plan through the exchanges during the period covered by the report (October 1 through November 2, 2013), and only 26,794 of them did so through the federal exchange. Indeed, some in the media seem to believe that the most important number is one that is not in the report – the number of enrollees that actually paid for a plan. That number that is certainly even smaller. Of course, the number of enrollees is the smallest number in the report (other than the number of enrollees from individual states – 42 enrollees from North Dakota). Most of the numbers in the report are much larger. These include: 26,876,527 unique visitors (apparently visitors from unique computers) to the federal and state exchange websites and 3,158,436 calls to the call centers. 846,184 paper and electronic applications submitted to the state and federal exchanges (326,623 state and 519,561 federal) with sufficient information to begin determining eligibility for enrollment or financial assistance. These applications covered 1,509,883 individuals. Seventy-four percent were submitted electronically, 26 percent were submitted by phone or mail. 1,477,853 applications processed to the point of an eligibility determination. 1,081,592 individuals (378,973 and 702,619 federal) determined to be eligible to enroll in marketplace plans. 396,261 individuals determined to be eligible for Medicaid or CHIP. This number only includes individuals who applied for Medicaid or CHIP through the exchanges, and not individuals who applied independently to state agencies.