We’re down to just days left in the 2019 Open Enrollment Period (OEP) for ACA-compliant coverage, and HealthSherpa continues to see strong results for enrollments and affordability from the same period during last year’s open enrollment. Through five and a half weeks, HealthSherpa enrollments are up 81% from 2018, while median net premiums have continued to be down significantly (36%) for customers.
HealthSherpa surpassed 300,000 enrollments during this OEP in the first week of December, which bests last year’s total enrollments with anywhere between 25-50%+ of enrollments still to come in during the final week.
Much thought has been given in the media to why overall healthcare.gov enrollments are down more than 10% year-over-year, with decreased marketing and media coverage given and a likely contributor. That could indeed be true in the final analysis after OEP. Our experience, which has been a key contributor to our year-over-year growth, has been meaningful partnerships with nonprofit organizations and brokers committed to getting individuals quality, affordable coverage.
For example, in Florida, our total enrollments are up more than 300% from last year. We are now responsible for something close to 1 in 15 total individual ACA enrollments in the state. That is due in large part to key broker relationships that were solidified this year. We are on a similar pace in much smaller Utah. When you have experts whose business is to find coverage for people, they act as marketing outreach, and therefore have been the underappreciated lifeblood of ACA coverage since its inception. Of course, having an easy user experience for them and their customers streamlines the process even further.
Here are highlights from HealthSherpa’s OEP19 stats through week 4:
- Total enrollments are up 70 percent from the same period during OEP18.
- More than 300,000 people have enrolled in coverage through HealthSherpa since November 1.
- Median net premiums are down 36 percent — $31 per month
- 73% of all enrollments nationwide are in silver metal level plans, which are comparable in coverage to employer-provided health plans.
- HealthSherpa enrollees to date during OEP19 will save $2 billion in 2019 premium costs.
- In addition to low net premiums, 84 percent of HealthSherpa customers also qualified for cost-sharing reductions (CSRs), which will translate to millions more in 2019 savings.
- Women enroll as head-of-household on 55 percent of all applications nationwide.
- Florida continues to lead both in overall enrollments and in year-over-year increase in enrollment activity to this point. More than 93,000 Floridians have enrolled in coverage through HealthSherpa, more than 3 times the rate of enrollment during the same period last year.
- The state with the highest per-capita enrollment is Utah. 1 in 500 Utahns has obtained coverage through HealthSherpa, and closer to 1 in 10 of the addressable market for individual coverage.
Note to Media: We can provide state, city, and zip-code level data for the categories shown in this document for healthcare.gov states where HealthSherpa offers ACA-subsidized policies.
Year-Over-Year Change in Key Enrollment Metrics
- HealthSherpa Enrollment Volume: Up 70%
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- Total Call Volume: Up 14%
- Median Net Premium: Down 36% (2018: $31 vs. 2017: $49)
- Median Gross Premium: Down 5% (2018: $790 vs. 2017: $829)
- Median Subsidy: Up <1% (2018: $692 vs. 2017: $689)
- Median Income: Down 3% (2018: $22,000 vs. 2017: $21,840)
- Average Applicants Per Policy: Up <1% (2018: 1.5 vs. 2017: 1.48)
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