311000 in state enroll for coverage under health care law

Analysts had been concerned that higher premiums and deductibles might scare off new enrollees. They also pointed out that the federal insurance marketplace saw about one third more people enrolling before the coverage deadline than was the case a year ago.

A man leaves Access Health CT, Connecticut’s health insurance exchange’s first insurance store, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013, in New Britain, Conn. During the most recent open enrollment period, about 34,000 people in Connecticut signed up for insurance through the exchange.

The surge comes after HHS announced that it was extending the deadline for this open enrollment period from December 15 to December 17, having seen an unprecedented amount of traffic on its website and call centers.

This year’s enrollment total to date includes 2.1 million individuals under age 35 who newly signed up for health coverage. These numbers only include the 38 states using HealthCare.gov, so large states with their own programs, such as California and NY, are not included in this count.

The government subsidizes insurance for more than 85% of the people enrolled through HealthCare.gov and the state-based exchanges. “But also there are many more people who are in the marketplaces, so there are people who now have a family member, a work colleague, a neighbor who may be getting marketplace coverage and so it becomes more familiar to them”. There are other reasons fewer people than expected have signed up, including decisions by the Obama administration to allow people to remain on plans that weren’t compliant with the law, which depressed enrollment. Back then, it was believed that by 2016, there would be over 20 million people signed up.