Health insurance enrollment surges in Illinois
A little more than 61,100 Illinoisans selected new health insurance policies created under President Barack Obama's health care law through Dec. 28, as a last-minute surge in enrollment helped the marketplaces recover from an embarrassing Oct. 1 launch.
The Illinois enrollments are up nearly ninefold from November, when little more than 7,000 selected policies, according to federal data released Monday. Nationwide, nearly 2.2 million selected a plan, with the vast majority coming in December.
But early data suggest the marketplaces are far more popular among older and potentially less healthy consumers, a trend that threatens to push up premiums in the future unless the law's supporters can persuade more young, healthy Americans to sign up for insurance.
About 58 percent of those who signed up for coverage in Illinois were age 45 or older, and women outnumbered men, according to the new data, the first time demographic information about people signing up for coverage has been made available.
Just 23 percent in Illinois and about a quarter nationally were between ages 18 and 34 - well below the 40 percent goal set by administration officials - a key demographic that will help offset the cost of insuring older, sicker consumers who tend to ring up more health care costs. The numbers underscore the challenge that remains to drive more so-called young invincibles into coverage with 11 weeks remaining in open enrollment.
Nonetheless, officials expressed optimism that more young people will sign up in the months ahead and said the early figures squared with their expectations rooted in experience from Massachusetts, which launched its health insurance expansion in 2006.
'We think more and more young people will sign up,' said Gary Cohen, who is overseeing the new marketplaces at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
That seems realistic, given that many young people would be unlikely to sign up right away, said Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation who studies insurance markets.
'I would expect enrollment to surge in second half, particularly in March,' he said.
Coverage started Jan. 1 for those who selected plans before Christmas. But Americans have until the end of March to choose a plan before they risk being penalized under the new law for not having coverage.
For the exchanges to work, insurers need to sign up more consumers like Ellie Fullerton, a 25-year-old in Hyde Park who has no known health problems.
Fullerton, who works a temporary job at the University of Chicago for about $30,000 a year, enrolled in a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois plan that costs about $200 a month.
While she's not eligible for federal tax credits to help offset the costs of coverage, she said gaining protection was important.
'I'm young, I'm healthy and I don't really need to see a doctor on a regular basis,' she said. 'Even though I don't really feel I will get much out of this, that's the nature of insurance. Essentially, the way we looked at it is if anything catastrophic happens - if I get hit by a car or get cancer - I'll only have to pay my deductible.'
Insurance industry officials have been closely watching the mix of new customers, concerned about an influx of older, sicker Americans.
Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's Washington-based lobbying arm, said it is premature to draw conclusions about what the age mix of new consumers will be, since the enrollment period lasts until the end of March.
'It is important to look at the enrollment picture over the whole six-month period,' he said.
The dramatic increase in enrollment reflects a flurry of technological fixes made in late November to HealthCare.gov, the federal website that operates the online marketplaces for 36 states, including Illinois, where consumers can compare and buy private plans, often with the help of government subsidies.
Before the website's overhaul, it was stricken with substantial glitches that led to lengthy delays and errors that rendered it largely inoperable for many users.
Nationally, the Congressional Budget Office projected that about 7 million people would sign up for coverage during the six-month open-enrollment period. In Illinois, officials expect about 300,000 to buy new plans offered on the exchange for 2014.
Post a Comment for "Health insurance enrollment surges in Illinois"