National News
most states Lag in health Insurance sign-ups
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Most states are still lagging
when it comes to sign-ups
under President Barack
Obama’s health care law,
but an Associated Press
analysis of numbers report-
ed Wednesday finds a dozen
high-achievers
getting
ahead of the game.
Huge disparities are
emerging in how well states
are living up to federal
enrollment targets, and that
will help determine if the
White House reaches its
unofficial goal of having 7
million signed up by the end
of March, six weeks away.
Connecticut is the nation’s
top performer, signing up
more than twice the number
of residents it had been pro-
signing up despite strong
political opposition to the
health care law in some of
those states.
The administration said
Wednesday about 1 million
people signed up for private
insurance under the health
law in January, extending a
turnaround from early days
when a dysfunctional web-
site frustrated consumers.
January marked the first
time since new health insur-
ance markets opened last
fall that a national monthly
enrollment target was met.
All in all, from Oct. 1
through Feb. 1, nearly 3.3
million people have signed
up.
“It’s very, very encourag-
ing news,” said Health and
Human Services Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius. “We’re
seeing a healthy growth in
enrollment.” Still, the goal
of 7 million by the end of
Overall, 4 in 5 of those signing
up were eligible for financial
assistance with their premiums
or out-of-pocket expenses
jected to enroll by the end of
January.
Massachusetts,
which
pioneered
the
approach Obama took in his
law, is at the bottom of the
list having met only 5 per-
cent of its target.
Six Republican-led states
— Florida, Idaho, Maine,
Michigan, North Carolina,
and Wisconsin — are on
pace or better. Residents are
March seems like a stretch.
Also, officials are unable
to say how many of those
who signed up were previ-
ously uninsured — the
ultimate test of Obama’s
hard-fought overhaul. And
they don’t know how many
have sealed the deal by pay-
ing their premiums.
The numbers showed an
uptick in the number of
young adults signing up,
now 25 percent of the total.
Officials expect a last-
minute surge of 18-34 year
olds before the end of open
enrollment on Mar. 31.
Their premiums are needed
to help with the cost of care
for older adults.
Overall, 4 in 5 of those
signing up were eligible for
financial assistance with
their premiums or out-of-
pocket expenses.
“Enrollment will continue
to increase because it’s easi-
er to sign up,” said Lynn
Blewett, director of the
State Health Data Access
Assistance Center at the
University of Minnesota.
“What everybody hopes is
that we see more young
people and families with
young children enrolling, to
give the insurance pools a
healthy mix of younger and
older people.”
While the national num-
bers are improving, the
latest report raises questions
about what’s going on in the
states. Ultimately Obama’s
law will play out differently
in each state, since insur-
ance premiums are set at the
local level.
The AP’s analysis com-
pared the latest cumulative
sign-up numbers for each
state with targets spelled out
in a Sept. 5, 2013 memo to
Sebelius that the AP
obtained months ago.
In the memo, HHS
experts projected that 4.4
million people would have
signed up by the end of Jan-
uary. But that was before the
disastrous launch of the fed-
re
ca
OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY PETE SOUZA
Kevin Vineys and
Ricardo Alonso-
Zaldivar
The Associated Press
President Barack Obama answers questions during a health care reform town
hall meeting at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., July
1, 2009. senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett is seated at right.
eral enrollment website on
Oct 1. Though it has been
repaired, the website was
out of commission most of
its first month. Several
states running their own
websites are still having
technology problems.
Nationally, the nearly 3.3
million enrolled represent
75 percent of the signups
that HHS had originally
hoped to have by the end of
January.
Among the states meeting
or exceeding expectations,
New York was the biggest.
Its 211,290 sign-ups repre-
sent more than 1 1/2 times
its goal. Other populous
states among the top per-
formers included Florida,
Michigan, and North Car-
olina.
California, which leads all
the states in enrollment, had
met 90 percent of its goal
with 728,086 signed up.
Texas, which has the high-
est proportion of uninsured
residents of any state, was
subpar. It met 53 percent of
its goal.
Blewett said the federal
website appears to be out-
performing portals run by
the states. States where the
feds are in charge met 80
percent of their enrollment
targets, compared with 70
percent for states running
their own insurance mar-
kets.
Surprisingly, the worst
performers include four
jurisdictions
where
Obama’s law has strong
support: Maryland, Massa-
chusetts, Oregon and the
District of Columbia. The
three states on that list have
all had problems with their
enrollment websites.
“Maybe it’s time for the
feds to send some SWAT
teams and resources and
help turn the corner on tech-
nological glitches,” said
Blewett.
February 12, 2014 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 9