Healthcare.gov Finished Strong Despite Rocky Start, Enrollment Data Show
Obama administration officials on Thursday predicted health insurance premiums would be stable next year despite concerns that not enough young and healthy people signed up through the online insurance exchanges.
鈥淭he risk pool is fundamentally large and varied to support that kind of pricing鈥n every state,鈥 said Mike Hash, director of the office of health reform聽for the Health and Human Services Department. 鈥淲e believe 鈥 premiums will be stable.鈥
The upbeat assessment came as the administration offered the broadest glimpse yet of the demographics of the 8 million Americans who enrolled in health insurance through the health law’s online marketplaces through mid-April. Open enrollment for this year has ended in nearly all states聽and will re-open in November.
About 28 percent of enrollees nationwide were the coveted 18- to 34-year-olds, the group least likely to need health services. Analysts have debated whether enough young and healthy people have enrolled to ensure that premiums don鈥檛 spike in 2015 because of the significant number of older enrollees, many of them with expensive health issues. Insurance premiums for next year won鈥檛 be known until fall.
The report details the scope of the last-minute surge –about 900,000 people, or 12 percent of the more than 8 million enrollees, signed up after March 31.
聽— and about 250,000 more people than Texas, which聽has a larger population and more uninsured residents. Both Florida and Texas were among a handful of states whose enrollment doubled since March 1.
More than 4 through the end of March, compared to enrollment before the marketplace opened last October. About half the states expanded Medicaid under the law to cover everyone with incomes under 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or $15,800 for an individual.聽 Some of those new Medicaid enrollees were previously eligible but not enrolled in the program.
The report found that 63 percent of enrollees who聽answered questions about their racial or ethnic background through the federal exchange identified themselves聽as聽white, 11 percent as Latino and 17 percent as black. Almost one third of enrollees did not provide that information, according to聽.
The largest number of Latinos enrolled in border states,聽including Texas at 33.6 percent, New Mexico at 31.1 percent, Arizona at聽24 .2 percent and Florida at 19.2 percent.
The states participating in the federal exchange with the largest share of African-American enrollees were Mississippi at 59.5 percent, Georgia at 38.6 percent and Louisiana at 37.9 percent.
The highest enrollment of Asians among federal exchange states聽occurred in Virginia at 17.7 percent, New Jersey at 16.3 percent and Georgia at 14.8 percent.
Among the 8 million enrollees, 54 percent are women and 46 percent are men. Federal officials said they expected that gender gap because women are generally more likely to buy insurance than men.
About two-thirds of enrollees chose a mid-level, or silver plan鈥攍argely because that was the best deal for consumers getting a government subsidy.聽Overall, about 85 percent of people buying聽plans received subsidies.
Just 20 percent chose bronze plans, which had lower monthly premiums but higher deductibles and co-payments.
Nationally, about 60 percent聽of 聽13.5 million people who started to apply for coverage on the marketplaces鈥揳nd were deemed eligible for the exchange plans based on their income and insurance states — completed the enrollment process. 聽About 63 percent of people completed the enrollment process on the state exchanges and 57 percent completed it on the federal exchange used by 36 states.
The 8 million-plus enrollees exceeded the projection made by the Congressional Budget Office, which had originally forecast 7 million would sign up in 2014, then downgraded that to 6 million after the rocky rollout of the federal exchange made it almost impossible for people to sign up in October and November.
