A busy final week of open enrollment at HealthCare.gov almost doubled the total number of health insurance plans selected and nearly equaled the total for last year’s much longer period, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
After the first 6 weeks of enrollment, the total number of plans selected for 2018 stood at 4.68 million. Just 1 week later, when open enrollment ended on Dec. 15, the total was 8.82 million. That works out to 6.43 million plans selected by consumers who renewed their coverage on 1 of the 39 state exchanges that use the HealthCare.gov platform and 2.39 million plans selected by new consumers (those who did not have coverage in 2017), the CMS reported.
The 8.82 million plans selected during the 7 weeks of open enrollment for 2018 coverage was just a bit short of the 9.2 million plans selected for 2017, when the enrollment period was 14 weeks, based on CMS data.
The CMS noted that the numbers for 2018 are estimates that represent plans selected and not the number of consumers who have paid premiums to effectuate their enrollment.
SOURCE: CMS.gov Fact Sheet
