The total number of health insurance plans selected on HealthCare.gov increased by 68% during weeks 5 and 6 of the 2018 open season, compared with the total at the end of week 4, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The 1.89 million plans that consumers selected over the 2-week period ending Dec. 9 brought this year’s total to 4.68 million after 6 weeks. That’s 16.5% higher than last year’s 6-week total of 4.02 million, but the difference has been getting smaller: After week 2 (enrollment figures were released only biweekly last year), the 2018 open season’s tally was higher than the 2017 open season’s week 2 tally by almost 47%, but after 4 weeks, the difference was only 30%, the CMS data show.
Last year’s open enrollment lasted 14 weeks and ended with consumers in the 39 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform selecting 9.2 million health insurance plans. This year’s season will last only 7 weeks and ends Dec. 15.
