Thousands of people swarmed MNsure’s help lines Thursday evening, trying to purchase health insurance on the deadline for it to take effect in January.
A total of 52,000 Minnesotans have signed up for insurance through Thursday’s deadline, which means around 8,000 signed up on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This is around twice as fast as the pace of enrollment last year, a change a MNsure spokesperson attributed to carriers imposing new enrollment caps this year and Minnesotans trying to sign up before those caps are reached.
In total the website’s call center took 8,158 calls on Thursday. That’s about 15 percent of the total number of calls MNsure received in the past month, in one day.
The deluge of people seeking help signing up for insurance led to some long hold times. Over the past month, the average call was answered in just 7 seconds with 98 percent answered in five minutes or less. On Thursday, the average wait time was 20 minutes and 13 seconds. As the end of the day approached, some customers reported waiting on the line for hours.
As of midnight Thursday, there were still 300 people on hold waiting for help. Everyone on hold at the time of the deadline could still be processed, MNsure CEO Allison O’Toole said this week.
MNsure’s open enrollment period will continue through Jan. 31, but those plans won’t take effect until February or March.