Nearly 30,000 Consumers Enroll in Qualified Health Plans in Final Days Leading to December 15th Deadline
Enrollment Exceeds Last Year by 700,000
Open Enrollment Period Runs Through January 31st
ALBANY, N.Y. - NY State of Health, the state’s official health plan Marketplace, today announced that enrollment reached over 4.1 million at close of business on December 15 – the deadline for January 1, 2018 coverage – exceeding enrollment on December 15, 2016 by 700,000.
“There has been a steady increase in enrollment since the start of the 2018 open enrollment period and that trend continued through December 15th with nearly 30,000 people enrolling in a Qualified Health Plan the final two days,” said NY State of Health Executive Director Donna Frescatore. “Enrollment through NY State of Health is at its highest point reported to date.”
Enrollment is as follows:
Qualified Health Plans
|
229,000
|
Essential Plan
|
716,000
|
Child Health Plus
|
364,000
|
Medicaid
|
2,871,000
|
Total
|
4,180,000
|
Among the 229,000 Qualified Health Plan enrollees, 50,000 are new and 179,000 are returning customers. QHP enrollment as of December 15th exceeds last year’s December 15th count by 22,000 or 11 percent.
Enrollment in the popular Essential Plan for lower income New Yorkers continued a steady climb up from 640,000 last December 15, 2016.
The NY State of Health website and Customer Service Center both experienced high traffic volume up until close of business on December 15th. The Customer Service Center received over 1 million calls between November 1 and December 15th, including over 55,000 calls on December 15th alone, reflecting higher volumes than the same day last year. Similarly, the NY State of Health website had more than 1.1 million unique visitors who collectively viewed nearly 61 million web pages since November 1, 2017. On December 15th, 2017 alone, there were over 100,000 website visitors – an increase of more than 10,000 website visitors than on this day last year.
Enrollment in a Qualified Health Plan continues through January 31, 2018. After that date, individuals can enroll in a Qualified Health Plan only if they have a life event such as loss of coverage, marriage or birth of a child that qualifies them for a Special Enrollment Period. Enrollment in Medicaid, Child Health Plus and the Essential Plan continues throughout the year.
