Fact Sheets Jan 20, 2016

Health Insurance Marketplace Open Enrollment Snapshot - Week 11

Health Insurance Marketplace Open Enrollment Snapshot - Week 11
January 10, 2016 - January 16, 2016

Since Open Enrollment began on November 1, about 8.8 million consumers signed-up for health coverage through the HealthCare.gov platform or had their coverage automatically renewed. This week’s snapshot includes weekly and cumulative data for enrollment through HealthCare.gov, a breakdown of cumulative data for 38 states using the HealthCare.gov platform, and cumulative data for local markets.

“As expected, consumer interest is beginning to increase again as we near the deadline for 2016 coverage,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. “We know we have more work to do and as we count down to the January 31 final deadline, we’re focused on making sure consumers understand that they must act soon to find affordable health coverage and avoid the fee for choosing to not have health insurance in 2016. Consumers should know that we’re here to help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

As we have previously noted, this year the number of net plan selections accounts for both insurer and consumer-initiated cancellations that occur before the end of Open Enrollment. This is a change from last year, and it will result in a larger number of cancellations being accounted for during, rather than after, Open Enrollment. Last year, cancellations from insurers that happened during Open Enrollment were reflected only in reports on effectuated enrollment after the end of Open Enrollment. As a result, there will likely be a smaller difference this year between plan selection totals at the end of Open Enrollment and subsequent effectuated enrollment.

To provide a clearer picture of underlying enrollment trends, starting this week, we are including the weekly net new plan selection total. This number is in addition to the plan selection total we have been reporting each week, which includes both new and returning consumers. Net new plan selections take into account new plan selections in the reporting week minus any consumer or insurer-initiated cancelations for new plan selections.

Overall, net plan selections for Week 11 totaled 153,631. Over the same time period, net new plan selections totaled 399,885, about the same as the similar week during last year’s Open Enrollment. Cancelations reflected in the net plan selection number for this week were by and large insurer-initiated cancellations of returning consumers who were automatically enrolled for 2016 but actually had their policies terminated at the end of 2015.

Similar to last year, each week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will release weekly Open Enrollment snapshots for the HealthCare.gov platform, which is used by the Federally-facilitated Marketplaces and State Partnership Marketplaces, as well as some State-based Marketplaces. These snapshots provide point-in-time estimates of weekly plan selections, call center activity and visits to HealthCare.gov or CuidadoDeSalud.gov. The final number of plan selections associated with enrollment activity to date could fluctuate as plan changes or cancellations occur, such as in response to life changes like starting a new job or getting married. In addition, the weekly snapshot only looks at plan selections and does not include the number of consumers who paid their premiums to effectuate their enrollment.

HHS will continue to produce more detailed reports that look at plan selections across the Federally-facilitated Marketplace and State-based Marketplaces later in the Open Enrollment period.

Definitions and details on the data are included in the glossary.

Federal Marketplace Snapshot

Federal Marketplace Snapshot Week 11
Jan 10  – Jan 16
Cumulative
Nov 1 – Jan 16
Plan Selections (net) 153,631 8,836,102
Applications Submitted (Number of Consumers) 560,581 11,627,465
Call Center Volume 1,138,599 11,535,731
Average Call Center Wait Time 8 minutes 32 seconds 10 minutes 20 seconds
Calls with Spanish Speaking Representative 81,358 700,632
Average Wait for Spanish Speaking Rep 29 seconds 21 seconds
HealthCare.gov Users 3,107,502 23,491,161
CuidadoDeSalud.gov Users 262,859 1,305,585
Window Shopping HealthCare.gov Users 730,139 8,032,535
Window Shopping CuidadoDeSalud.gov Users 15,443 159,445

HealthCare.gov State-by-State Snapshot

Consumers across the country continued to explore their health insurance options by reaching out to a call center representative at 1-800-318-2596, attending enrollment events in their local communities, or visiting HealthCare.gov or CuidadoDeSalud.gov. Individual plan selections for the states using the HealthCare.gov platform include:

Week 11 Cumulative Plan Selections
Nov 1 – Jan 16
Alabama 180,109
Alaska 21,830
Arizona 182,828
Arkansas 68,101
Delaware 26,334
Florida 1,605,623
Georgia 535,918
Hawaii 12,764
Illinois 354,962
Indiana 185,100
Iowa 51,575
Kansas 92,380
Louisiana 195,261
Maine 79,789
Michigan 327,674
Mississippi 97,909
Missouri 266,036
Montana 55,875
Nebraska 82,245
Nevada 77,717
New Hampshire 51,935
New Jersey 266,726
New Mexico 49,777
North Carolina 569,649
North Dakota 20,326
Ohio 225,173
Oklahoma 133,574
Oregon 137,820
Pennsylvania 415,351
South Carolina 211,846
South Dakota 23,890
Tennessee 245,566
Texas 1,152,013
Utah 159,623
Virginia 391,155
West Virginia 35,080
Wisconsin 224,719
Wyoming 21,849

HealthCare.gov Local Area Snapshot

The Week 11 snapshot includes a look at plan section by Designated Market Areas (DMAs) which are local media markets. These data provides another level of detail to better understand total plan selections within local communities. Some DMAs include one or more counties in a state that is not using the HealthCare.gov platform in 2016. Plan selections for those DMAs only include data for the portions of these areas that are using the HealthCare.gov platform, so the cumulative totals in the snapshot do not represent plan selections for the entire DMA. In addition, some DMAs cross into multiple states that use the HealthCare.gov platform and those totals are cumulative for all HealthCare.gov states in that DMA. Because some communities do not fall into a DMA, cumulative plan selections for local markets will not total to the national cumulative plan selection number.

Local Markets in HealthCare.gov States State Cumulative Plan Selections
Nov 1 – Jan 16
Abilene-Sweetwater Texas 9,769
Albany Georgia 15,452
Albuquerque-Santa Fe New Mexico 42,596
Alexandria Louisiana 9,020
Alpena Michigan 1,954
Amarillo Texas 13,848
Anchorage Alaska 14,129
Atlanta Georgia 405,103
Augusta Georgia 30,659
Austin Texas 114,782
Bangor Maine 22,451
Baton Rouge Louisiana 41,611
Beaumont-Port Arthur Texas 13,940
Bend Oregon 10,166
Billings Montana 15,843
Biloxi-Gulfport Mississippi 9,186
Birmingham (Ann and Tusc) Alabama 71,533
Bluefield-Beckley-Oak Hill West Virginia 7,391
Boise Idaho 875*
Boston (Manchester) Massachusetts 41,480
Buffalo New York 1,270
Burlington-Plattsburgh Vermont 4,876
Butte-Bozeman Montana 9,366
Casper-Riverton Wyoming 4,794
Cedar Rapids-Wtrlo-IWC & Dub Iowa 15,739
Champaign & Sprngfld-Decatur Illinois 23,165
Charleston South Carolina 43,332
Charleston-Huntington West Virginia 15,858
Charlotte North Carolina 193,013
Charlottesville Virginia 15,421
Chattanooga Tennessee 36,984
Cheyenne-Scottsbluf Wyoming 6,229
Chicago, IL Illinois 283,454
Cincinnati, OH Ohio 45,635
Clarksburg-Weston West Virginia 5,816
Cleveland-Akron (Canton) Ohio 80,768
Columbia South Carolina 40,916
Columbia-Jefferson City Missouri 21,177
Columbus Georgia 18,992
Columbus Ohio 44,091
Columbus-Tupelo-West Point Mississippi 13,046
Corpus Christi Texas 18,177
Dallas-Ft. Worth Texas 341,290
Davenport-R. Island-Moline Iowa/Illinois 16,579
Dayton Ohio 22,006
Denver Colorado 6,863
Des Moines-Ames Iowa 19,184
Detroit Michigan 170,085
Dothan Alabama 9,015
Duluth-Superior Minnesota 6,558
El Paso (Las Cruces) Texas 59,098
Elmira (Corning) New York 1,149*
Erie Pennsylvania 8,686
Eugene Oregon 19,252
Evansville Indiana 14,039
Fairbanks Alaska 2,644
Fargo-Valley City North Dakota 10,557
Flint-Saginaw-Bay City Michigan 29,904
Ft. Myers-Naples Florida 85,960
Ft. Smith-Fay-Sprngdl-Rgrs Arkansas 21,967
Ft. Wayne Indiana 21,615
Gainesville Florida 18,543
Glendive Montana 530*
Grand Rapids-Kalmzoo-B.Crk Michigan 66,347
Great Falls Montana 7,763
Green Bay-Appleton Wisconsin 49,711
Greensboro-H.Point-W.Salem North Carolina 102,010
Greenville-N.Bern-Washngtn North Carolina 41,113
Greenvll-Spart-Ashevll-And North Carolina 112,382
Greenwood-Greenville Mississippi 6,748
Harlingen-Wslco-Brnsvl-Mca Texas 50,320
Harrisburg-Lncstr-Leb-York Pennsylvania 60,850
Harrisonburg Virginia 11,846
Hattiesburg-Laurel Mississippi 10,713*
Helena Montana 2,581*
Honolulu Hawaii 12,764
Houston Texas 307,320
Huntsville-Decatur Alabama 36,120
Idaho Falls-Pocatello Idaho 2,735
Indianapolis Indiana 84,951
Jackson Mississippi 38,481
Jackson Tennessee 11,105
Jacksonville Florida 96,077
Johnstown-Altoona Pennsylvania 19,165
Jonesboro Arkansas 5,542
Joplin-Pittsburg Missouri 15,012
Juneau Alaska 3,010*
Kansas City Kansas/Missouri 100,895
Knoxville Tennessee 49,047
La Crosse-Eau Claire Wisconsin 23,268
Lafayette Indiana 3,151
Lafayette Louisiana 24,353
Lake Charles Louisiana 6,591*
Lansing Michigan 14,655
Laredo Texas 13,439
Las Vegas Nevada 54,556
Lima Ohio 1,589
Lincoln & Hastings-Krny Nebraska 36,727
Little Rock-Pine Bluff Arkansas 32,998
Louisville Kentucky 8,460
Lubbock Texas 12,640
Macon Georgia 21,651
Madison Wisconsin 33,226
Marquette Michigan 9,404
Medford-Klamath Falls Oregon 13,958
Memphis Tennessee 58,688
Meridian Mississippi 3,875*
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale Florida 598,705
Milwaukee Wisconsin 82,131
Minneapolis-St. Paul Minnesota 11,002
Minot-Bismarck-Dickinson North Dakota 11,450
Missoula Montana 19,763
Mobile-Pensacola (Ft Walt) Alabama 61,941
Monroe-El Dorado Louisiana/Arkansas 19,860
Montgomery-Selma Alabama 18,961*
Myrtle Beach-Florence Florida 38,795
Nashville Tennessee 97,599
New Orleans Louisiana 80,809
New York New York 210,936
Norfolk-Portsmth-Newpt News Virginia 76,664
North Platte Nebraska 1,660
Odessa-Midland Texas 11,827
Oklahoma City Oklahoma 67,566
Omaha Nebraska 36,754
Orlando-Daytona Bch-Melbrn Florida 299,858
Ottumwa-Kirksville Missouri 3,615
Paducah-Cape Girard-Harsbg Illinois/Kentucky/Missouri 20,351
Panama City Florida 20,792
Parkersburg West Virginia 2,815
Peoria-Bloomington Illinois 12,857
Philadelphia Pennsylvania 274,630
Phoenix (Prescott) Arizona 129,985
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 78,213
Portland, OR Oregon 89,967
Portland-Auburn Maine 58,465
Presque Isle Maine 4,058
Quincy-Hannibal-Keokuk Illinois/Missouri/Iowa 7,130
Raleigh-Durham (Fayetvlle) North Carolina 152,541
Rapid City South Dakota 7,368
Reno Nevada 21,557
Richmond-Petersburg Virginia 74,425
Roanoke-Lynchburg Virginia 47,907
Rochestr-Mason City-Austin Minnesota/Iowa 1,337
Rockford Illinois 12,469
Salisbury Maryland 6,780
Salt Lake City Utah 160,143
San Angelo Texas 4,414
San Antonio Texas 103,816
Savannah Georgia 44,633
Sherman-Ada Texas 9,042
Shreveport Louisiana 34,199
Sioux City Iowa 9,997
Sioux Falls(Mitchell) South Dakota 17,846
South Bend-Elkhart Indiana 23,983
Spokane Washington 1,269
Springfield Missouri 52,704
St. Joseph Missouri 3,735
St. Louis Missouri 122,974
Tallahassee-Thomasville Florida 25,540
Tampa-St. Pete (Sarasota) Florida 259,086
Terre Haute Indiana 9,541
Toledo Ohio 17,773
Topeka Kansas 11,748
Traverse City-Cadillac Michigan 25,184
Tri-Cities Tennessee 24,636
Tucson (Sierra Vista) Arizona 31,023
Tulsa Oklahoma 46,247
Tyler-Longview(Lfkn&Ncgd) Texas 22,605
Victoria Texas 2,121
Waco-Temple-Bryan Texas 25,438
Washington, DC (Hagerstown)   165,980
Wausau-Rhinelander Wisconsin 20,470
West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce Florida 179,009
Wheeling-Steubenville Ohio 6,242
Wichita Falls & Lawton Texas 10,011
Wichita-Hutchinson Plus Kansas 35,250
Wilkes Barre-Scranton Pennsylvania 44,805
Wilmington Delaware 31,680
Yakima-Pasco-Rchlnd-Knnwck Oregon 1,741
Youngstown Ohio 12,976
Yuma-El Centro Arizona 3,537
Zanesville Ohio 1,231

*Because there was a change of 11 or fewer enrollments for Week 11, data for Week 10 was used as a placeholder to adhere to privacy standards.

Glossary

Plan Selections:  The weekly and cumulative metrics provide a preliminary total of those who have submitted an application and selected a plan. Each week’s plan selections reflect the total number of plan selections for the week and cumulatively from the beginning of Open Enrollment to the end of the reporting period, net of any cancellations from a consumer or cancellations from an insurer during that time.

Because of further automation in communication with issuers, the number of net plan selections reported this year account for issuer-initiated plan cancellations that occur before the end of Open Enrollment for reasons such as non-payment of premiums. This change will result in a larger number of cancellations being accounted for during Open Enrollment than last year. Last year, these cancellations were reflected only in reports on effectuated enrollment after the end of Open Enrollment. As a result, there may also be a smaller difference this year between plan selections at the end of Open Enrollment and subsequent effectuated enrollment, although some difference will remain because plan cancellations related to non-payment of premium will frequently occur after the end of Open Enrollment.

Plan selections include those consumers who are automatically re-enrolled into their current plan or another plan with similar benefits, which occurs at the end of December.

To have their coverage effectuated, consumers generally need to pay their first month’s health plan premium. This release does not include totals for effectuated enrollments.

Net New Plan Selections: Weekly net new plan selections take into account new plan selections minus any consumer or insurer-initiated cancelations for new plan selections.

Marketplace: Generally, references to the Health Insurance Marketplace in this report refer to 38 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform. The states using the HealthCare.gov platform are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

HealthCare.gov States: The 38 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform for the 2016 benefit year, including the Federally-facilitated Marketplace, State Partnership Marketplaces and State-based Marketplaces.

Local Markets: Cumulative plan selections for local markets are based on Designated Market Areas (DMAs) which are media markets. Some DMAs include one or more counties in a state that is not using the HealthCare.gov platform in 2016. Plan selections for those DMAs only include data for the portions of these areas that are using the HealthCare.gov platform, so the cumulative totals in the snapshot do not represent plan selections for the entire DMA.

Applications Submitted:  This includes a consumer who is on a completed and submitted application or who, through the automatic re-enrollment process, which occurs at the end of December, had an application submitted to a Marketplace using the HealthCare.gov platform. If determined eligible for Marketplace coverage, a new consumer still needs to pick a health plan (i.e., plan selection) and pay their premium to get covered (i.e., effectuated enrollment). Because families can submit a single application, this figure tallies the total number of people on a submitted application (rather than the total number of submitted applications).

Call Center Volume:  The total number of calls received by the Federally-facilitated Marketplace call center over the course of the week covered by the snapshot or from the start of Open Enrollment. Calls with Spanish speaking representatives are not included.

Calls with Spanish Speaking Representative:  The total number of calls received by the Federally-facilitated Marketplace call center where consumers chose to speak with a Spanish-speaking representative. These calls are not included within the Call Center Volume metric.

Average Call Center Wait Time: The average amount of time a consumer waited before reaching a customer service representative. The cumulative total averages wait time over the course of the extended time period.

HealthCare.gov or CuidadodeSalud.gov  Users: These user metrics total how many unique users viewed or interacted with HealthCare.gov or CuidadodeSalud.gov, respectively, over the course of a specific date range. For cumulative totals, a separate report is run for the entire Open Enrollment period to minimize users being counted more than once during that longer range of time and to provide a more accurate estimate of unique users. Depending on an individual’s browser settings and browsing habits, a visitor may be counted as a unique user more than once.

Window Shopping HealthCare.gov Users or CuidadoDeSalud.gov Users: These user metrics total how many unique users interacted with the window-shopping tool at HealthCare.gov or CuidadoDeSalud.gov, respectively, over the course of a specific date range. For cumulative totals, a separate report is run for the entire Open Enrollment period to minimize users being counted more than once during that longer range of time and to provide a more accurate estimate of unique users. Depending on an individual’s browser settings and browsing habits, a visitor may be counted as a unique user more than once. Users who window-shopped are also included in the total HealthCare.gov or CuidadoDeSalud.gov user total.