Plan B Forum

Most Obamacare exchange enrollees were previously uninsured, survey finds


By Jason Millman June 19 at 11:00 AM

About six in 10 people who bought their own health insurance through Affordable Care Act exchanges were previously uninsured, according to a new survey providing one of the first comprehensive looks at the insurance landscape after the health care law's first open enrollment period.

And although a large majority of people who purchased exchange coverage received financial help from the federal government to pay their premiums, affordability remains a major concern for people buying their own coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation survey.

The findings are an early view into the impact of Obamacare's coverage expansion on the individual health insurance market after taking effect in January. The Obama administration hasn't reported how many of the 8 million people selecting health insurance through the exchanges were previously uninsured, and almost every state running its own insurance marketplace is still studying this question. Other surveys have shown that the uninsured rate has fallen in the past few months, though the exchanges' role in driving down that rate has been unclear.

The Kaiser findings contradict other surveys that found most people who bought exchange coverage already had insurance. A Rand Corp. survey in April found that one-third of exchange enrollees were previously uninsured. McKinsey & Co. last month reported 26 percent of people purchasing plans in the individual market, on and off the exchange, were previously uninsured.

Kaiser senior vice president Larry Levitt said other surveys underestimated the previously uninsured population by asking people about their insurance status over the past year, which doesn't account for how often people shift in and out of the individual insurance market. For example, a person who was uninsured when purchasing an exchange health plan may have reported previous coverage if he or she had insurance at some other point during the year.

Has Oregon managed to cut their total uninsured by 65% with a completely broken website??? (UPDATE: Yep, it looks like it)

There's a TON of amazing news out of Oregon today, but I only had room for the most stunning one in the title above. Trust me, this is chock full 'o goodness:

For all the hits Oregon has taken over their website, they continue to calmly, quietly, manually add more and more people to their exchange rolls:

Medical enrollments through Cover Oregon: 315,825
Total private medical insurance enrollments through Cover Oregon 1: 89,744

Oregon Health Plan enrollments through Cover Oregon: 226,081

Net private medical: 81,369
Net private dental: 15,461

This is a net increase of another 1,029 QHPs and another 14,151 Medicaid enrollees since June 12...or up 21,436 QHPs since the end of Open Enrollment on 4/19 (330 per day on average).

It's worth remembering that Oregon started the year with only about 559,000 uninsured people in the entire state. Add in the 128,434 "Fast Track" Medicaid enrollees and you have a whopping 444,000 people covered one way or the other.