MNsure Reports Smooth Signups
Jan. 18--Officials who run Minnesota's individual health insurance marketplace MNsure say the controversial state agency just completed its smoothest annual sign-up period yet since its launch in 2013.
More than 116,000 people bought insurance through the state marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. That's slightly higher than last year's record of 114,810, but missed the 5 percent growth agency officials anticipated.
"This was the best open-enrollment period we've ever had," Allison O'Toole, MNsure CEO, said in an interview before releasing the final enrollment tally. "We are getting better, and more and more Minnesotans are realizing our value to them."
But the individual insurance market continues to face uncertainty in Minnesota and in Washington D.C.
The Republican-controlled Congress wants to dismantle Obamacare, and while Minnesota's market appears to have stabilized, fewer people are buying insurance on the individual market. Customers buying insurance on the individual market fell from 309,000 in 2015 to about 166,000 by mid-2017, according to a recent study by the state Department of Health.
About 30 percent of the MNsure enrollees who signed up during the Nov. 1 to Jan. 14 open-enrollment period were new customers. More than 60 percent qualified for tax breaks to pay for coverage that average $7,000.
MNsure avoided the technical glitches and other problems that plagued the system in its early days. This year the agency's website MNsure.org had 1.9 million visitors and nearly 150,000 people contacted the call center.
"We have made significant progress every year, and this year is no different," O'Toole said. "We have worked night and day to make this better."
This story will be updated.
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