Massachusetts public exchange managers have data hinting that a large share of consumers who wanted commercial coverage and could afford it now have it.
The staff of the state-based Massachusetts Health Connector have included website and call center traffic statistics for the first week of April in a board meeting packet.
The staff found that website and call center traffic surged around March 31, then returned to normal levels this month.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, state regulators, state exchange plan managers and plan issuers developed the open enrollment period system to keep consumers from waiting until they got sick to pay for coverage.
The HHS-run exchanges and many state-based exchanges extended the enrollment period to mid-April.
Observers wondered whether the extensions would bring out a flood of consumers who'd procrastinated, had experienced genuine enrollment problems, or had first learned about the exchanges because of publicity about the deadline.
