The following comes to us from Donna Frescatore, the New York’s healthcare exchange executive director.
Dear Colleague:
I am pleased to send you a link to a report released today entitled, NY State of Health: The Official Health Plan Marketplace 2014 Open Enrollment Report. This report includes information about the nearly 1 million people who enrolled in health insurance coverage through NY State of Health’s Individual and Small Business Marketplaces during the period October 1, 2013 through April 15, 2014. We hope you find this report both informative and helpful.
http://info.nystateofhealth.ny.gov/2014OpenEnrollmentReport
Sincerely,
Donna Frescatore, Executive Director
NY State of Health
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A Breakdown Of New York’s Obamacare Numbers
By Dan Goldberg Capital New York June 25, 2014
Nearly 275,000 New Yorkers were eligible for more than $700 million in federal tax credits to help them pay for health insurance, according to a new report from the state Department of Health.
That’s roughly $2,500 per person, and demonstrates how expensive health care coverage can be in New York even after the Affordable Care Act reduced rates on the individual market.
Wednesday’s report is the fullest picture yet of exactly who enrolled in the state’s health insurance exchange created by the Affordable Care Act.
State officials used it as another chance to tout the successful implementation of the program, which enrolled nearly 1 million people either on Medicaid or through a private insurance plan.
The state’s health department also highlighted the fact that 80 percent of enrollees said they were previously uninsured, but that number can be misleading.
The state asked enrollees if they were uninsured at the time of their purchase, and while 80 percent said they were, it is not clear how many in that cohort lost their previous coverage because their plan was not compliant with new federal rules.
Reports have estimated that at least 100,000 New Yorkers had their insurance plan canceled last year.
“It’s likely a little bit inflated because if it’s asking at time of application, you are going to get people who’ve had insurance at some point last year,” said Yevgeniy Feyman, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. “It’s not the right way to ask this question.”
The report’s top-line numbers—370,604 people who enrolled in private insurance plans, 525,283 who enrolled in Medicaid and 64,875 who enrolled in Child Health Plus program—had been released before and illustrate how New York ran one of the more successful health insurance exchanges in the nation.
The state had an estimated 2.2 million uninsured citizens before implementation of the law. That number does not include undocumented immigrants who are not eligible for benefits under the Affordable Care Act.
The state hoped to enroll 1.1 million people through its exchange by 2016 and nearly hit that mark after just six months. That includes those signing up for a private insurance plan and those enrolling Medicaid.
What this new report also details is a breakdown of race, location, language preference and income levels for the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who enrolled.
Subsidies
Most New Yorkers were eligible for a federal subsidy that helped them defray the cost of their insurance. The average subsidy was $215 per month, meaning that the 273,888 New Yorkers eligible for a subsidy to purchase a private insurance plan will receive an estimated $706 million in annual federal tax credits.
Market share
As Capital previously reported, no one insurance company garnered 20 percent of the market, but four different companies had between 14 percent and 19 percent of market share. Health Republic Insurance of New York (19 percent) Fidelis Care (17 percent) and H.H.C. MetroPlus (15 percent) led the way.
“It’s very good to see no one plan is a huge market leader,” Feyman said.
The competition bodes well for premium prices, which could be kept lower by insurance companies wary of their competition.
It can also be instructive for other players in the market. Those insurers typically offered some of the lowest-cost options on the exchange and that appears to have attracted the majority of the market.
MetroPlus, which was only available in four New York City counties captured 44 percent of the Bronx market, 38 percent of Brooklyn, 29 percent of Manhattan, 35 percent of Queens
Metal level
This is where New York diverges from much of the nation. As of mid-April, the last day of enrollment, 13 percent of enrollees chose the most expensive Platinum level plans, 10 percent took Gold level plans, 10 percent are in Silver level plans without cost sharing reductions, 45 percent are in one of three Silver level Cost-sharing Reduction plans, 19 percent are in Bronze level plans, and 2 percent are in Catastrophic plans.
The federal government released a report in April showing that only 5 percent of those who enrolled through healthcare.gov, the federal marketplace managing the exchange for 36 states, chose a platinum plan while 20 percent took a Bronze plan.
Where they live
A majority (52 percent) of enrollees came from New York City and an additional 14 percent lived on Long Island. The enrollment numbers are, for the most part, in line with the regions’ share of the state’s population.
… by borough
Almost twice as many enrollees (159,000) came from Brooklyn as from Manhattan (85,000) The Bronx had 82,000, Queens 151,000, Staten Island had 19,500.
Timing
The data dump shows that New Yorkers, like much of the nation, were procrastinators. Though enrollment began in October, 74 percent of New Yorkers enrolled after January 1, more than one-third enrolled in March, and 38,000 signed up for coverage on the last day of March, which was supposed to be the last day of open enrollment.
Language
Across all programs, 85 percent of enrollees selected English as their preferred language, 10 percent selected Spanish, 4 percent selected Chinese and 1 percent selected Russian. Consumers enrolled in Medicaid were more likely to select a language other than English (19 percent), compared with consumers in other programs (11 percent and 9 percent for CHP and QHPs, respectively).