May 2nd, 2014 – According to an article in Businessweek magazine, new data released yesterday by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sheds new light on how many of the new enrollees in ObamaCare were previously uninsured.
The report surmises the inaugural open enrollment period that ran from Oct 1, 2014 through April, 2014 and focusses on people who enrolled through the national Healthcare.gov website AND applied for federal subsidies.
Of the roughly 5.2 million people who applied for federal subsidies, only about 13 percent had prior health insurance coverage and 4.5 million were uninsured before ObamaCare,” according to the HHS report.
Officials warned that the percentages illustrated in the data may be unreliable. “That number, we think, is small,” said Mike Hash, director of the HHS Office of Health Reform.
Also, according to a Republican House committee report, only 2/3rds of those who signed up through Healthcare.gov had paid their initial month’s premium by April, so those policies won’t be issued.
Colorado was not be included in the data set, since we have our own Connect for Health Colorado exchange. Other states with their own exchanges tended to have much higher percentages of the previously insured. Connect for Health Colorado reports more than 129,000 Coloradans signed up for health insurance through their exchange, excluding the 178,000 Coloradans who signed up for Medicaid. Connect for Health Colorado’s private insurance customer base also is trending younger, with 38.1% of Coloradans signed up ages 0-34; 35.1% ages 35-54; and 26.8% ages 55 and older.
