Last-minute rush boosts Obamacare signups, thanks to new consumers
WASHINGTON — About 6 million people signed up for health insurance through Thursday on the federal exchange covering 38 states, federal officials announced Friday.
About 60% of the people who signed up for plans in the last two days were new customers. Overall, about 2.4 million people were uninsured, new customers to Healthcare.gov. The new enrollment numbers are at least a third higher than the number of new customers who signed up before the first deadline last year.
"The more who sign up the stronger the system becomes," President Obama said during a press conference Friday.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, he noted, the uninsured rate in the United States is now below 10% and far fewer Americans are "one illness or accident" away from financial ruin.
While retaining consumers is important, administration officials need to attract uninsured consumers to meet and hopefully exceed the modest goal they set of 10 million people insured on the exchanges at the end of 2016.
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Calling it the "the "busiest week we've ever seen," acting Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Andrew Slavitt, said on a press call that "together these numbers tell an important story. Many people were waiting to buy coverage."
CMS on Tuesday extended the deadline for Jan. 1 coverage two days until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. The deadline for 2016 coverage is Jan. 31. Those who aren't insured at that point — and aren't eligible for a hardship exemption — will owe tax penalty in April 2017 that is $695 per person to a maximum of $2,085 per household or 2.5% of income, whichever is higher.
Kevin Counihan, CEO of Healthcare.gov, credits the surge with people's desire to have insurance, but also how affordable they are finding plans if they receive tax credits, which about 80% of people do.
CMS says the average increase in premiums for the second-lowest priced silver plans in the states using Healthcare.gov rose 7.5% for 2016. This plan is the benchmark plan used to set the amount of subsidies those who are eligible will get. Silver plans are the most popular sold on Healthcare.gov and most people eligible for tax credits buy the benchmark plan.
But a new analysis out this week of the plans on the exchanges for all 51 states found the average premium price of silver plans was up more than 11% over 2015 for a 27-year-old male.
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CMS also said Healthcare.gov had:
• Two million calls to its call center on Dec. 14 and 15.
• There were 11 consumers enrolling every second during the busiest periods;
• About 600,000: people enrolled in 24 hours on Dec 15, the busiest day in the site's two-year history.
About half of the two million callers had to leave their names to be called back and Slavitt said call center employees had attempted to reach all of them by now. They will continue to reach out to these callers so they can have coverage starting Jan. 1, CMS said.
