Only 67% of Insurance Exchange Enrollees Paid Premiums

Around two-thirds of people who had picked insurance plans through HealthCare.gov paid their first month's premium by April 15, according to a report released Wednesday by Republican lawmakers using data from insurers.

The GOP-led House Energy and Commerce Committee asked for payment data from 160 health plans selling policies in the Affordable Care Act's federal insurance exchange. The committee's leaders said that responses showed that across the 36 states served by the federal exchange, 67% of people who had finished the sign-up process had made the premium payment to insurers and had been enrolled in coverage as of April 15. 

The proportion is lower than the rates some large individual insurers have released, though some of the time frames for those estimates vary.

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"Tired of receiving incomplete pictures of enrollment in the health-care law, we went right to the source and found that the administration's recent declarations of success may be unfounded," said Rep. Fred Upton (R., Mich.), the chairman of the committee. Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the top Democrat on the committee, called the report "inaccurate, irresponsible and out-of-date." 

The House report's figure doesn't include details about the 14 states that are running their own exchanges, some of which were still allowing people to sign up as of April 30 or later. WellPoint's and Aetna's figures included state and federal enrollment. The committee didn't make the responses from insurers available.

The committee's leaders said the data showed that across the country, only 25% of the enrollees who had paid their premiums as of April 15 were in the highly sought-after 18-to-34 demographic. Starting this year, insurers are no longer allowed to charge people higher rates based on their medical history. As a result, they are eager to enroll as many younger people as possible, to balance out the expected higher medical claims from older and sicker enrollees.

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