HealthCare.gov Signups Slow As Enrollment Nears End
In the next-to-last week, renewals continued to be much stronger than new signup activity.
The seven-week individual major medical open enrollment period for 2019 coverage ends Saturday in HealthCare.gov states.
In the sixth week — the next-to-last week — signup activity sputtered.
The total number of people who signed up for coverage during the week ending Dec. 8 amounted to 1.1 million. The total was 13% lower than the total for the sixth week of the open enrollment period for 2018 coverage.
Signup activity continued to be much stronger for people who already have coverage purchased through HealthCare.gov than for people new to the program.
(Related: HealthCare.gov Activity Sags)
The number of people who signed up for renewal coverage during the week fell just 6.7%, to 684,937.
The number who signed up for new coverage fell 24%, to 388,984 million.
The total number of signups for the entire enrollment season amounted to about 4.7 million, down 12% from the year-earlier total.
Early activity will not necessarily correlate closely with the final enrollment numbers: In the past, HealthCare.gov has generated a high percentage of its enrollment activity in the last few days of the open enrollment period.
HealthCare.gov acts as a web-based supermarket for health insurance coverage from private insurers. It serves residents of 39 states.
The District of Columbia and 11 states have their own ACA exchange plan enrollment systems and report their enrollment figures separately.
— Read HealthSherpa Sees Strong Individual Major Medical Activity, on ThinkAdvisor.
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