The Obama administration released the final Obamacare enrollment report for the first period, bringing the total number of selected plans to just over 8 million but excluding the number of customers who have paid their premiums so far.
The administration’s enrollment data has been one-upped not only by their earlier announcement, sans official details, that they’d reached 8 million sign-ups, but also by House Republicans’ release Wednesday of the first payment data the public has seen about Obamacare exchanges. (RELATED: Report: Just 2.4 Million HealthCare.gov Customers Paid Their First Premium)
Health and Human Services’ official enrollment report found that through April 19, 8,019,763 individuals selected a plan in federal or state exchanges. In the 14 state-based marketplaces, California played a far outsized role in sign-ups: the state accounts for 1.4 million of 2.5 million selected plans in state exchanges.
The enrollment report includes some state-by-state details, but the most significant metric — the share of young adults — remains unchanged at 28 percent of sign-ups since the administration’s last promotion.
“More than eight million Americans signed up through the Marketplace, exceeding expectation and demonstrating brisk demand for quality, affordable coverage,” said outgoing HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a statement.
The secretary did not comment on whether the number of paid enrollments is expected to exceed the administration’s minimum definition of success of 7 million. If industry estimates that between 80 and 85 percent of sign-ups will pay their premiums in the end turn out correct, the exchanges will have attracted between 6.4 million and 6.8 million paying customers, potentially leaving the administration on the edge of its goal.
The last several weeks of the enrollment period did provide a serious boost to the numbers. 52 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 signed up between March 1 and April 19. The HHS report did not detail the age make-up on a state-by-state basis.
The report also alleged that 85 percent of exchange sign-ups nationwide are eligible for premium subsidies.
HHS released the limited available data on race and ethnicity in the federally-run exchanges as well. Just two-thirds of sign-ups willingly offered to report their race. Of those respondents, 62.9 percent are white, 16.7 percent are African American, 10.7 percent are Latino, and 7.9 percent are Asian.
Like all previous Obama administration enrollment updates, HHS did not include any payment data. Most customers who signed up between March 15 and April 15 would have until April 30 to submit their payment.
But for most customers who signed up anytime prior to March 15, the first premium payment was due by April 1. The Obama administration has routinely refused to cull customers who have been removed from insurer systems for months for having failed to make their first premium payment, which for some customers was due as early as December 31.
House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee issued a report Wednesday finding that through April 15, 67 percent of customers in federally-run Obamacare exchanges had paid their premiums, using data collected from all 160 insurers participating in the federal exchanges.
The committee will update their report May 20 with payment data through April 30.
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