10M Active on Obamacare Plans at 2015 End

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced today that she expects 10 million individuals to be enrolled in coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplaces and paying their premiums –- so-called effectuated coverage -– at the close of 2016. As part of that goal, HHS believes more than 1 out of every 4 uninsured Marketplace-eligible consumers will select plans during Open Enrollment. Today, the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) released a demographic analysis of the uninsured individuals who are likely eligible for Marketplace coverage, along with its methodology for estimating the number of individuals it expects to have effectuated Marketplace coverage at the end of 2016. According to the reports, nearly 8 in 10 of the approximately 10.5 million uninsured individuals likely to be eligible for qualified health plans (or the “QHP-eligible uninsured”) may be eligible for financial help through the Marketplaces. “We believe 10 million is a strong and realistic goal,” Burwell said. “We’ve seen high levels of satisfaction with the Marketplace and expect the vast majority of our current customers will re-enroll. And our target assumes that more than one out of every four of the eligible uninsured will select plans. We are working hard to improve the customer experience with upgrades to our site and more tools to help people find what they are looking for. We want to make it easier for consumers to find the right plan at the right price.”