The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is reporting that in week one of the 2022 Open Enrollment Period, approximately 774,000 people selected individual market plans in the 33 states that utilize the HealthCare.gov platform. During Open Enrollment, CMS will release weekly enrollment snapshots that provide point-in-time estimates of weekly plan selections, Marketplace Call Center activity, and visits to HealthCare.gov and CuidadoDeSalud.gov for states that utilize the platform.
As longtime readers know, every summer/fall I run analyses of the annual premium rate change filings for both the individual and small group health insurance markets for all 50 states +DC. However, I tend to put most of my focus on the individual market, since that tends to have a lot more interest and activity surrounding it.
The individual market has been rocked by both economic and policy changes from year to year (in both good and bad ways) far more than the small group market, which hasn't been in the news nearly as much. You tend to read a lot of stories about the Individual Market (both ACA-compliant as well as so-called "junk plans" like Short Term, Sharing Ministries, Farm Bureau and the like), and of course the Large Group market is massive (something like 40% of the U.S. population), so even minor changes to that are big news...but the Small Group market (which generally includes companies with 50 or fewer full-time employees, though a few states include companies with 100 or fewer) tends to get short shrift in both the news as well as healthcare wonkery.
Biden-Harris Administration Extends Hundreds of Millions of Dollars to New York’s Essential Plan, its Basic Health Program, Key Connection to Coverage Supported by American Rescue Plan
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is providing approximately $750 million in additional funding in 2022 to support the Essential Plan, New York’s Basic Health Program (BHP), as well as added funds for 2020 and 2021. The additional funds, made available through the American Rescue Plan, increase New York’s ability to provide health care coverage to approximately 1 million individuals.
Biden-Harris Administration Extends Millions in Funding to Minnesota for MinnesotaCare, its Basic Health Program, Key Connection to Coverage Supported by American Rescue Plan
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is providing approximately $100 million in additional funding in 2022 to support MinnesotaCare, Minnesota’s Basic Health Program (BHP), as well as added funds for 2020 and 2021. The additional funds, made available through the American Rescue Plan, increase Minnesota’s ability to provide affordable, quality health care coverage to approximately 100,000 individuals.
Way back in October 2013, I launched the ACA Signups project as a light, nerdy hobby thing which was only supposed to last around six months, through the end of the first ACA Open Enrollment Period (March 31, 2014). Instead...well, let's just say that it's more than eight years later and I'm still doing this.
The reality is that The Graph itself doesn't serve a whole lot of useful function anymore. The enrollment patterns were erratic the first couple of years but have since settled into a pretty predictable...if not downright boring pattern for both the federal and state exchanges. The main reason I keep doing it each year is mostly out of tradition these days; after all, without The Graph, there wouldn't be an ACA Signups and I wouldn't have become a healthcare policy wonk in the first place.
The pattern for both the federal and state-based exchanges typically looks like this:
Over 208,000 Washington Residents Sign Up During First Week of Washington Healthplanfinder Open Enrollment
Most customers can save by comparing plans
The annual open enrollment period for Washingtonians seeking health care coverage in 2022 began Monday, Nov. 1. Washington Health Benefit Exchange (Exchange) reports over 208,000 customers in Washington have already secured health coverage for 2022 through Washington Healthplanfinder, the state’s online insurance marketplace.
UPDATE 12/17/21: I've already submitted my comment to the Health & Human Services Dept. Now, the National Health Law Program’s My Care Counts project has created an easy-to-use public comment tool for you to submit your own. PLEASE DO SO before January 9th!
MAKE SURE *NOT* TO USE THE GENERIC DEFAULT LANGUAGE IN THE FORM, HOWEVER; MAKE IT YOUR OWN.
See the rest of the post below for the background/details on this issue.
About 2 years ago, GOP Georgia Governor Brian Kemp submitted an ACA Section 1332 Waiver request to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. As Katie Keith of Health Affairs explained at the time, it consisted of two parts...the first of which was fairly noncontroversial, the second of which was...well, not good:
DISCLAIMER: HealthSherpa is one of two Enhanced Direct Enrollment (EDE) ACA brokers which run banner ads on my site. EDEs are basically authorized private, 3rd-party versions of ACA exchange sites which have their back ends integrated directly into the federal exchange (HealthCare.Gov) (W3LL is the other EDE which advertises here).
Having said that, I believe Sherpa is the largest ACA EDE out there, and they're pretty transparent about their enrollment metrics, so until CMS posts their official Weekly Snapshot Enrollment Report (which should happen sometime today or tomorrow), Sherpa's updates are pretty good indicators of how things are going overall.
DC Residents Can Get Covered and Stayed Covered by Going to DCHealthLink.com Before the January 31, 2022 Deadline
(Washington, DC) - As the first week of DC Health Link’s 2022 open enrollment period comes to a close, Mayor Muriel Bowser is encouraging DC residents to sign up for high-quality, affordable health insurance at DCHealthLink.com, the District’s online state-based health insurance marketplace established under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Open enrollment for individuals and families runs from November 1, 2021 and continues through January 31, 2022.
“Ensuring everyone in our community is insured is a critical step in making our healthcare landscape more equitable,” said Mayor Bowser. “Keeping our community healthy means ensuring all Washingtonians are getting the right care at the right time. We never want people in our city to put off healthcare because of a lack of coverage. Now is the time to get covered and stay covered, and that process can start at DCHealthLink.com.”
Free in-person help offered to Connecticut residents at pop-up enrollment fairs and daily on-site locations
HARTFORD, Conn. (Nov. 4, 2021)—Access Health CT (AHCT) announced today that in addition to on-site locations, it will offer three in-person enrollment fairs in Fairfield, Hartford and Waterbury during November, giving Connecticut residents more time to shop, compare and enroll in quality health insurance plans.
All in-person enrollment fairs will be held from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the following locations in Fairfield, Hartford and Waterbury.
