Every month for years now, the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) has published a monthly press release with a breakout of total Medicare, Medicaid & CHIP enrollment; the most recent one was posted in late February, and ran through November 2022.

Since December 2022, however, they haven't sent out the normal press release; instead, they included a brief note leading to a Medicaid/CHIP data slideshow , along with another note leading to their new Medicare Monthly Enrollment database.

In any event, according to the spreadsheet I exported, as of October 2023:

Hmmm...via Covered California:

Covered California announced today that it will give consumers until Feb. 9 to sign up for coverage in 2024.

“We’ve seen record-breaking enrollment nationally, and Covered California is surging with heightened demand,” said Covered California Executive Director Jessica Altman. “We want any Californian who needs health insurance to have the opportunity to get covered for the rest of 2024, and extending the open-enrollment period will ensure they have the time they need.”

In addition to the increased demand, consumers looking to enroll in recent days may have encountered challenges reaching Covered California representatives over the phone, and many this week have experienced longer than expected wait times. This was due in part to a disruption to Covered California’s service center, which was temporarily taken offline in immediate response to a cybersecurity incident affecting a third-party vendor that supports its phone lines.

via Pennie, Pennsylvania's state-based ACA exchange:

  • The record number of Pennsylvanians is an increase of over 150,000 – 56 percent – since Pennie launched in 2020.

Harrisburg, PA – Today, Pennie – PA's official health insurance marketplace – announced that a record nearly 435,000 Pennsylvanians are now covered with affordable, high-quality health coverage through Pennie. This represents a 17% increase compared to this time last year, far exceeding the average annual increase of 1%. Marketplace enrollment has increased by over 150,000 in the four years since Pennsylvania took over ownership and operations from the federal marketplace (healthcare.gov) – a 56% increase.  

via the Massachusetts Health Connector:

Massachusetts Health Connector ends busiest Open Enrollment in a decade with more than 72,000 new enrollments

Marketplace enrollment increases dramatically by 40 percent in the last year

BOSTON – More than 72,000 people enrolled in new health insurance plans with the Massachusetts Health Connector during Open Enrollment 2024, which ended on January 23. This is the largest number of new enrollments in a decade, continuing a rapid increase in overall Health Connector enrollment, which has surged by 40 percent in the last year.

Note: as the next paragraph states, the 40% increase refers to total effectuated enrollment as of today versus total effectuated enrollment as of February 2023. When you include total QHPs and divide it last open enrollment periods total QHPs, which is my and CMS's standard methodology, it's a 30% year over year increase. I've been informed that there are an additional 7,713 enrollees who haven't actually paid their first premium yet.

Well if nothing else at least I get to use the speech to text tool on my Mac for the first time. I found out the hard way this morning that if you're going to punch a wall in frustration, at the very least make sure not to hit a wall stud in the process.

That's right, I managed to dislocate my finger and fracture my knuckle. Or possibly the other way around.

In any event, I may require surgery; I have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon this week; and either way typing is going to be very difficult and I'm going to have to rely on a lot of voice activation for the next few weeks.

As a result, while I'll still be posting, the entries will likely be shorter than usual and less frequent for a while. Typing actually isn't too bad thanks to speech to text, but using apps like Excel, Photoshop etc. Is gonna be a real pain for a bit.

Thanks for your understanding.

via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS):

CMS Announces Data RFI to Improve Data Sharing and Enhance Competition 

On December 7, the Biden-Harris Administration announced new actions to promote competition in health care, including increasing transparency in the Medicare Advantage (MA) insurance market and strengthening MA programmatic data. Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is continuing momentum in this area by releasing a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit feedback from the public on how best to enhance MA data capabilities and increase public transparency.

Among the most celebrated & ballyhooed provisions of the ACA are the Guaranteed Issue and Community Rating rules:

...Prohibits a health plan ("health plan” under this subtitle excludes any “grandfathered health plan” as defined in section 1251) from: (1) imposing any preexisting condition exclusion; or (2) discriminating on the basis of any health status-related factor. Allows premium rates to vary only by individual or family coverage, rating area, age, or tobacco use.

Requires health plans in a state to: (1) accept every employer and individual in the state that applies for coverage; and (2) renew or continue coverage at the option of the plan sponsor or the individual, as applicable.

Prohibits a health plan from establishing individual eligibility rules based on health status-related factors, including medical condition, claims experience, receipt of health care, medical history, genetic information, and evidence of insurability.

Connecticut

An interesting article via Jamil Ragland of CT News Junkie:

Six Democratic lawmakers went on the offensive today against what they believe is a better alternative to Association Health Plans.

(Note: The phasing of this lede is confusing...it makes it sound like the lawmakers oppose the better alternative, which the article makes clear is not the case.)

Association Health Plans, which are not currently allowed in Connecticut, would allow small businesses to form a group and purchase health insurance in bulk. However, that health insurance doesn’t come with the protections of the Patient and Affordable Care Act. 

It's been quite awhile since I've written about the "Ass" part of #ShortAssPlans; here's a few basics via Robert Pear of the New York Times:

Mississippi is one of the ten states where ACA Medicaid expansion still hasn't gone through a full decade after it could have.

A few years ago, Medicaid expansion in Mississippi looked like it might actually happen: While the states GOP Governor and Republican supermajority-controlled state legislature opposed it, in May 2021 there was a strong grassroots effort to put a statewide initiative on the ballot to push it through regardless, exactly how it happened in other deep red states like Utah, Nebraska, Idaho and South Dakota.

Unfortunately, just a few weeks later, the Mississippi Supreme Court crushed that effort:

Hmmm...that's the actual headline in the press release, but the actual numbers may tell a slightly different story...

via Covered California:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Heading into the final week of open enrollment, Covered California has continued to see signups surge. As of Jan. 20, over 243,000​ Californians have newly enrolled in coverage for 2024, a 13 percent increase over the same period last year. Over 1.5 million Covered California enrollees have renewed their coverage.

There is still time for uninsured Californians to sign up for coverage through Covered California, but only until Jan. 31.

“If you don’t have health insurance for yourself or your family, now is the time to enroll,” said Covered California Executive Director Jessica Altman. “With enhanced federal subsidies and a new state program to lower out-of-pocket costs, there has never been more help available to make quality health insurance more affordable and more attainable.”

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