Fewer Sign Up For Obamacare In 2017 In Connecticut

Dec. 24--Fewer state residents signed up for an Obamacare plan that will begin at the start of 2017 than for 2016, while the number of people failing to renew their policies grew this year.

Access Health CT, the organization responsible for enrolling people in Obamacare, did not release numbers on how many people are enrolled in policies that take effect Jan. 1. Instead, they released a combined number of who's enrolled now and who will be enrolled next year: 113,161.

Nationally, 6.4 million people have enrolled for subsidized private coverage through HealthCare.gov through Monday, about 400,000 more than for a comparable period in 2015, the Health and Human Services Department said Wednesday.

It's not clear if the administration will meet its target of 13.8 million sign-ups. That's partly because the share of new customers is down when compared with current consumers re-upping for another year.

New customers are 32 percent of the total this year versus 40 percent around the same time last year.

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy for the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, said it's hard to say why there were fewer new customers in Connecticut this year.

"Each year we've made progress in decreasing the percentage of uninsured people in the state," she said. "There are fewer new people to come in."

But, she said, "Some of it may be to do with cost of the plans. People may have come on, shopped, and decided to pay the penalty.

"And even though they may qualify for a subsidy it may not be enough to make it work for them, or their income could have gone up since last year and they don't qualify for a subsidy at all.

"Quite frankly, I think the bottom line is, the cost of health care plans is unsustainable for many many working people in the state of Connecticut and across the country."

And, she said, President-elect Donald Trump's vows to repeal the Affordable Care Act could be dampening enrollment, too.

Access Health CT noted that nearly 12,000 people who are currently enrolled are in plans that will not exist next year and are therefore not covered. They can still re-enroll, but they'll have a gap in coverage in January.

At this point in 2015, 100,314 people were scheduled to have Obamacare insurance coverage on Jan. 1, 2016.

There were 9,943 new customers this year, and about 11,000 during last year's first phase of open enrollment.

It's not clear if the number of uninsured will grow. Many people cycle between Obamacare and Medicaid during the year and many use it after losing full-time jobs. Others turn 65 and qualify for Medicare.

People can continue to enroll in Obamacare. If they sign up by Jan. 15, the policy will take effect on Feb. 1. Those enrolling in the second half of January will see their policy start March 1.

About twice as many people were able to get covered by Medicaid because of the eligibility expansion Obamacare included, and Access Health CT reported that 10,770 new customers who have signed up in the last month and a half will go into Medicaid, rather than a subsidized private insurance policy.

That number is also smaller than this time last year, when 23,000 additional people were enrolled in Medicaid with the help of Access Health CT.

An Associated Press report is included in this story.

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