Effects of Jan. 1 coverage enrollment extension unclear

The number of marketing tweets MNsure, Covered California and other state-based exchange programs sent today seemed to outnumber the enrollment-related tweets they received from consumers.

The third Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) individual major medical open enrollment period started Nov. 1 and is set to end Jan. 31. In most states, the application deadline for 2016 coverage that starts Jan. 1 was originally supposed to be 11:59 Pacific Standard Time (PST) Tuesday. Managers of HealthCare.gov, the exchange enrollment system the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) operators, agreed to extend the enrollment period to midnight PST today.

Only managers of the exchanges in Connecticut, Idaho, Kentucky and Vermont stuck with a firm Tuesday Jan. 1 coverage open enrollment deadline for all residents, according to Charles Gaba’s ACASignups.net blog.

Gaba estimates the exchanges now have about 5 million people who already have, or are officially on track to have, 2016 exchange qualified health plan (QHP) coverage in place Jan. 1.

Consumers who miss the Jan. 1 coverage open enrollment deadline can still buy 2016 coverage with a Feb. 1 start date. Unless an exchange provides some kind of broad extension, consumers who miss the Jan. 31 deadline must either qualify for a special enrollment period to buy coverage or go without major medical coverage until 2017.

Regulators, exchange managers and insurers developed the open enrollment period system in an effort to discourage young, healthy people from waiting until they get sick to pay for coverage. The idea is to expose young, healthy people to the possibility that they may have no coverage, and no immediate ability to buy coverage, if they get sick or hurt outside of the regular open enrollment period.

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