Covered CA extends enrollment deadline as signups surge
Previously, the state's health insurance exchange made
Covered
Health insurance officials also made it clear as the week began that a
Meanwhile, Covered California is closing in on the total enrollment it posted last year.
In an official announcement released Saturday, the exchange said that about 1.2 million of the 1.34 million Californians who are currently covered by exchange plans have renewed their enrollments for 2019 with approximately 179,000 newly-enrolled residents selecting plans so far this year, bringing the total to about 1.38 million for the open enrollment season.
But a large number of those new signups -- about 58,000 -- came forward last week, including 12,000 signups on
The pending elimination of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate, the requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty, is expected to erode enrollment nationwide. In June, Covered California estimated that its enrollment was likely to shrink by 12 percent in 2019 with the best-case scenario projected to be a 7 percent decrease.
However, through
"That's a drop of about 3 percent," Cox noted. "They're not very far behind where they were last year."
That's about four times better than it has been in most states with health insurance exchanges operated by the federal government. While final data is not yet available, Cox said the government's most recent open enrollment counts from last week show that, on average, states saw 12 percentage point enrollment decreases with the worst shrinkage a nearly 25 percent decrease in
However,
With nearly one month left for its extra-long open enrollment season -- federally-operated exchanges were required to stop enrolling new members on
Exchange officials weren't willing to speculate on that possibility Monday.
"This is going to have to settle out before we know for sure," said exchange spokesman
How has
Cox noted that the Golden State has a significant advantage over states with federally-operated health exchanges because it was able to retain its
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