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November 16, 2017 at 05:42 AM
HealthCare.gov kept health insurance customers pouring in during the second week of the new individual health insurance selling season.
The web-based health insurance supermarket took in plan selection information for 146,000 people per day from Nov. 5 through Nov. 11.
HealthCare.gov’s daily average was down just 2.8% from the daily average for the period from Nov. 1 through Nov. 4.
About 1.5 million people are now on track to have coverage purchased through HealthCare.gov in 2018.
(Related: Trump’s HealthCare.gov Posts Strong First-Week Results)
Making year-over-year comparisons is tricky, because HealthCare.gov managers used a different activity reporting schedule last year, but HealthCare.gov daily volume appears to be 74% higher this year than it was last year.
HealthCare.gov Basics
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) set up HealthCare.gov to provide Affordable Care Act public exchange enrollment and account administration services for states that are unable or unwilling to provide the services themselves.
HealthCare.gov acts, in effect, like a giant, government-run, independent health insurance brokerage agency. Like an independent insurance brokerage, it works with a large network of other independent brokers, or web-based broker entities, and with tens of thousands of retail agents.
Regulators, insurers and public exchange programs set up an open enrollment period system, or limits on when people can buy coverage, to try to limit insurers’ claim risk. Consumers who try to buy coverage outside the open enrollment period must show they have what the government classifies as a good excuse to be shopping for coverage. Supporters say the system protects insurers against the risk that younger, healthier people will wait until they get sick to pay for coverage.
