Signups slow, steady for state exchange

Although official figures aren’t yet in, managers of Colorado’s health-insurance exchange say signups during the reopened enrollment period are slow but still steady.

“Since it’s so close to the end of the last open enrollment, we haven’t seen a really big heavy volume like we did when we opened up the special open-enrollment period in response to COVID-19 last March,” said Monica Caballeros, communications manager at Connect for Health Colorado. “We are seeing folks coming in. Our assistance network and our broker community are really key in helping spread the word to folks who maybe just missed the boat on open enrollment that they do have a chance to sign up if they don’t have coverage.

“It’s a little more than last year, is what our data folks have let us know.”

SPONSORED CONTENT

The many benefits of simple, coordinated healthcare

Kaiser Permanente combines health care and coverage in one connected system to maximize employee health and minimize employer costs.

After President Joe Biden, during his first week in office, issued an executive order that reopened enrollment for the Affordable Care Act’s federal marketplace at healthcare.gov for three months beginning Feb. 15, the Colorado exchange responded by reopening its own signup period a week earlier, on Feb. 8, in collaboration with the state Division of Insurance.

The state and federal exchanges were reopened especially to help people who lost their employer-based health insurance when their workplaces shut down — either temporarily or permanently — because of the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

 “I am encouraged to see President Biden and his administration take action on this front, acknowledging the fact that so many remain without health insurance due to the continued impact of COVID-19,” said Colorado Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway in a news release. “The Division of Insurance will work with Connect for Health Colorado to make sure this additional enrollment period works to help Coloradans get covered.”   

During the normal enrollment period, which ran from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15, Caballeros said, Colorado recorded almost 180,000 new signups — up from 166,850 the previous year — but “not the huge boom that we saw during our emergency special-enrollment period last year.” During that special period, which began March 20 — a week after the state shut down many businesses and schools because of the pandemic — and ran through April 30, 14,000 people signed up for coverage.

“We don’t really know what the factors would have been that contributed to the increase,” Caballeros said. “It could be that more folks are shopping for the first time in the individual marketplace after having employer coverage for a while. It all boils down to the pandemic.”

She emphasized that Coloradans can get free virtual or telephone enrollment assistance through the state’s enrollment centers at 855-752-6749 or ConnectforHealthCO.com, or through certified brokers.

“They’re still open and operating outside of open enrollment,” she said.

Despite the high cost of treatment for those afflicted by the coronavirus, the state Division of Insurance had announced last fall that health-insurance premiums would actually decrease by an average of 1.4% from 2020 rates in the individual market, which includes marketplace and off-marketplace policies but not employer-provided plans. Some rural counties saw increases while some more heavily populated areas saw larger decreases, and some new plans contained 4% on average over 2020 premiums.

Insurance companies participating in the exchange submit the rates they want to charge consumers, as well as any changes to insurance policies offered, to the DOI each year. Connect for Health Colorado receives the approved plan costs and benefits from the DOI.

In a statement issued when the new rates were announced, Connect for Health Colorado chief executive Kevin Patterson said he was “encouraged by the overall stability we’re seeing” in premiums.

“Colorado families continue to feel the economic impacts of the pandemic at a time when the risk of going without health coverage has never been greater,” he said. According to the Colorado Health Institute, about 6.5% of Colorado residents — around 361,000 people —  don’t have insurance coverage. 

The premium rates were held down to the smallest change in years partly thanks to a “reinsurance” program, without which, state officials estimated, premiums would be about 20.8% higher. The reinsurance program reimburses insurance companies some of the cost of covering people with higher medical bills.

The DOI also had ordered insurance companies that wanted to sell individual plans on the state-run exchange not to build in the cost of a possible COVID-19 vaccine or set rates that increased their profit margins.

Analysts cited other factors as well. They noted that health insurers trying to figure out what rates they would charge in 2021 were as unsure as the population as a whole about what the year would look like. While some companies projected a modest increase in how much medical care they will have to cover because of COVID-19, others speculated that, as happened in 2020, many Americans would avoid seeking treatment for non-urgent conditions, resulting in lower expenses.        

The state exchange still offers four main levels of health-insurance plans, each with a different monthly premium. The most expensive Platinum plan pays about 90% of medical costs, whereas the Gold plan pays about 80%, the Silver plan about 70% and the Bronze plan about 60%. Those earning 250% or less of the federal poverty level, which is about $31,900 for a single person or about $65,500 for a family of four, may qualify for extra discounts.