Obamacare Enrollments Slows to a Crawl in some States

With less than seven weeks of open enrollment to go, ObamaCare enrollment — and payments — have slowed to a near-crawl in some states. 

Minnesota's exchange enrollment goal of 67,000 seemed within reach on Jan. 4, when signups stood at 25,860. 

But after surging by more than 4,000 per week in the prior five weeks, signups collapsed back to November's pace of less than 700 per week.

As of Feb. 1, Nevada had just 14,999 paid enrollees — vs. the state's March 31 goal of 115,000. 

Washington state, meanwhile, was slightly more than halfway to its goal of 340,000 signups — but only 88,071 had paid as of Feb. 1. 

The January data available from a handful of states raise new doubts about whether ObamaCare's downgraded first-year prospects are still too optimistic. 

Further, a spotty payment rate (50% in Washington and 66% in Nevada) creates a risk that the demographics of the paid exchange population may be older — and possibly sicker — than even the national signup data have signaled. 

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But January data from New York, Colorado, Maryland and Kentucky (easily accessible via acasignups.net) all suggest that the momentum which carried from December into January substantially faded in the second half of the month. 

To some extent, this isn't surprising. Those who missed the deadline for January coverage — some due to technical glitches — would have been expected to try to complete enrollment by Jan. 15 to attain coverage effective Feb. 1. 

But the extent of the drop-off in signups in states like Nevada, Minnesota and Maryland that have made little progress toward their goals does highlight an important question: Is demand lagging mainly because of informational hurdles — or because the subsidies and policies aren't well designed to attract broad participation?

Read the full story HERE.

Below is a link to a related story and a related video:

Insurance industry raises questions about new ObamaCare enrollment numbers being ‘inflated’

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