NY STATE OF HEALTH DETAILS INFORMATION ON TENS OF THOUSANDS WHO ENROLLED FOR JANUARY COVERAGE
DEMOGRAPHIC DATA SHOW NEARLY HALF WERE PREVIOUSLY UNINSURED, ENROLLMENTS IN EVERY COUNTY IN THE STATE, ALL HEALTH PLANS REPRESENTED, AND MIX OF AGE GROUPS
ALBANY (January 13, 2014) – NY State of Health (NYSOH), the State’s official health plan marketplace, today released demographic enrollment data on the more than 230,000 New Yorkers who enrolled in health plans through December 24, 2013, the last day to enroll for coverage starting in January 2014.
The data, which represents enrollment from the October 1, 2013 launch of the marketplace through December 24, show that close to half of enrollees were previously uninsured, enrollment occurred in every county in the state and across all health plans, and a mix of age groups. Through December 24, 2013, 230,624 New Yorkers enrolled into a health plan through NY State of Health for coverage starting in January 2014.
The open enrollment period for individuals runs through March 31, 2014. Enrollment in NY State of Health continues, and from October 1, 2013 through January 12, 2014, 294,595 people have enrolled.
“The results show strong activity throughout the state and across many important measures such as age, plan activity, newly insured, types of plan options chosen, and others," Donna Frescatore, executive director of NY State of Health, said. “From October 1 to December 24, more than 230,000 New Yorkers enrolled in quality, low-cost coverage through the NY State of Health marketplace. We are on track to meet, if not exceed our goal of 1.1 million by the end of 2016.”
Enrollment through December 24, 2013:
Total Enrollment: 230,624
Private Insurance: 168,999
Medicaid: 61,625
Summary of Enrollment Demographic Information Through December 24, 2013
Enrollment by Region
New Yorkers from every region in the State have enrolled in the Marketplace, with 37 percent of enrollees in New York City and 63 percent of enrollees in other areas of the State. Counties with the largest enrollment are Kings (Brooklyn), Queens, Suffolk, Manhattan, Nassau, Westchester, Erie, and Monroe. The enrollment percentages in New York State regions align closely with the regions’ population percentage of the state as a whole.
Enrollment by Health Plan
Each of the 16 health plans offering coverage through NY State of Health enrolled members into Qualified Health Plans (QHP). Six plans each enrolled 10 percent or more: Empire (18%), Health Republic (16%), Fidelis (14%), Emblem (12%), MetroPlus (11%), and MVP (10%). Six percent of enrollees are enrolled in Excellus, and the remaining 13 percent of enrollees were spread across nine issuers, each of which enrolled one to two percent of QHP enrollees.
Percentage of Uninsured Enrollees
A total of 152,249 individuals enrolled in QHPs through December 24, 2013. Within that group, 67,225 individuals (44 percent) were uninsured at the time of their application. The others who enrolled in QHPs had insurance previously.
Financial Assistance
Many individuals and families are eligible for financial assistance to reduce the cost of coverage purchased through the Marketplace. Of those who have enrolled in qualified health plans, 68 percent have enrolled with financial assistance and 32 percent are paying the full premium.
Qualified Health Plan Enrollment
The Marketplace offers Qualified Health Plans at four different metal levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Seventeen percent of enrollees are enrolled in Platinum level plans, 12 percent are in Gold level plans, 12 percent are in Silver level plans, 39 percent are in one of three Silver level Cost Sharing Reduction plans, 18 percent are in Bronze level plans, and 2 percent are in Catastrophic level plans.
Enrollment by Age
Marketplace enrollees include a mix of New Yorkers across all age groups. Approximately 30 percent of New Yorkers enrolled in a Qualified Health Plan are under the age of 35, 16 percent are between ages 35 and 44, 23 percent between ages 45-54, and 31 percent are over the age of 55.
Enrollments by Gender
Fifty-three percent of all QHP enrollees are women and 47 percent are men. Females are slightly more likely than males to be enrolled in QHPs with financial assistance, while an equal share of males and females comprise full-pay QHP enrollment.
Application Assistance
NY State of Health has trained and certified more than 6,000 people to provide free, in-person enrollment assistance to New Yorkers applying for coverage through the Marketplace. Navigators are required to assist both individuals and small employers; brokers have the option to work with one or both markets, and Certified Application Counselors (CACs) may only assist individuals. Application assistance is available for individuals as well as small businesses and their employees in every county of the State.
Website Activity
The Marketplace has experienced very high volumes of website visitors; there have been 2,229,123 unique visitors to the website and page views total 48,145,253 web pages. The website operated smoothly with an average system-response time of 3.8 seconds for each web page.
Customer Service Center
Between October 1 and December 24, 2013, the NY State of Health Customer Service Center answered 351,334 calls from New Yorkers. In the month of December, call volume more than doubled when compared to November, from an average of 5,500 calls per day to more than 14,000 calls per day. During the last two weeks leading up to the December 24, 2013 enrollment deadline, the average number of calls per day exceeded 15,000.
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Contact:
The New York State Department of Health
518 474 7354, ext. 1