Is the Obamacare exchange losing its appeal for Illinois consumers? Sign-ups down 26 percent during start of open enrollment

Nov. 21--Illinois residents have signed up for far fewer health insurance plans through the Obamacare exchange so far this year, despite slightly lower prices for many of the most popular plans, according to numbers released Wednesday by the federal government.

Three weeks into open enrollment, Illinois residents had selected 57,819 health insurance plans on the exchange, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That's a nearly 26 percent drop from the 77,960 plans that had been chosen at about the same time last year.

The numbers in Illinois echo those across the country. Nationally, people selected 1.9 million plans during the first three weeks of open enrollment this year, compared with 2.3 million last year at about the same time. The enrollment period for which figures were released Wednesday was one day shorter than last year.

It wasn't immediately clear Wednesday why enrollments were down, though a number of factors have changed since last year.

For one, unlike in previous years, people who choose not to buy health insurance for next year won't have to pay penalties for being uninsured. Also, Illinois got 78 percent less federal money to hire workers, known as navigators, to help people enroll in health insurance plans this year.

"People could be choosing to sit out this year," said Stephani Becker, associate director of health care justice at the at the Chicago-based Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. "We won't really know the effect until the final numbers." Open enrollment runs through Dec. 15.

Some advocates worry that the lower enrollment might mean more people in Illinois will go uninsured. For the first time in years, the state's uninsured rate crept upward in 2017, to 6.8 percent from 6.5 percent the year before, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

It's also possible, however, consumers are looking to take advantage of new insurance options, such as extended short-term plans.

Short-term plans are generally cheaper than traditional plans but cover fewer services. The Trump administration recently decided to allow short-term plans to be used for a year -- instead of just three months -- and be renewed for as long as three years.

Illinois lawmakers passed a bill that would limit the use of short-term plans in the state to six months at a time. Outgoing Gov. Bruce Rauner used his amendatory veto power to rewrite parts of the bill, though the state Senate has already voted to override those changes, and the House will take up the issue next.

It's also possible people haven't signed up for coverage yet because they were distracted by the midterm elections, Becker said.

Most Illinois residents get health insurance through their employers or government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. But this year about 335,000 people in Illinois opted for coverage through the Obamacare exchange.

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