Washington's Insurance Exchange Is Winning, Too; N.Y. and Calif. See Strong Obamacare Enrollment Numbers
More than 33 percent of eligible Washington residents have signed up for care on the state's health law online insurance exchange. In New York and California, exchanges see big sign-up numbers. Finally, lawmakers in Florida and Virginia ready plans for insurance exchanges that aren't part of the health law.
The Washington Post’s WonkBlog: Seattle Has A Great Football Team -- And An Awesome Obamacare Exchange, Too
Yes, there is the Super Bowl victory, as well. But you have enough things to read about that -- and not nearly as much coverage of the Washington Health Plan Finder, which is arguably having one of the best open enrollment seasons in the country. Washington, alongside Vermont, leads the nation in percentage of eligible population enrolled in its exchange. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 33.1 percent of Washingtonians eligible to sign up for coverage through the exchange have gone ahead and done so (Kliff, 2/3).
The Associated Press/Wall Street Journal: N.Y. Health Exchange Insures Thousands More
The state's new health exchange reports more than 657,000 New Yorkers have completed applications for insurance while nearly 381,000 of them have enrolled for specific coverage (2/4).
The Sacramento Bee: State Health Care Sign-Ups Faster Than Expected
Sacramento-area residents are buying insurance on the state’s new health care exchange much faster than anticipated -- but hundreds of thousands still lack coverage, new figures show. The Affordable Care Act requires most individuals without health insurance to obtain it and provides subsidies to those unable to afford premiums. One way to purchase insurance is through the state’s health care exchange, Covered California. About 27,000 individuals in the four-county region bought insurance on the exchange from October through December 2013, the first three months the exchange was open, new Covered California statistics show. That’s almost as many as the state initially predicted would buy insurance during the entire six-month enrollment period (Reese, 2/4).
Miami Herald: Florida To Launch Discount Health Insurance Exchange
Since 2008, Florida has been promising its residents a state-run health insurance exchange. Republican lawmakers continued to champion the much-delayed program even as they opposed Obamacare and refused to expand Medicaid to help the working poor. Now, officials say they are at last ready to launch Florida Health Choices and hope to reach people who can’t afford insurance on the federal exchange, or just don’t like the president’s plan (Mitchell, 2/3).
The Richmond Times-Dispatch: Senate Panel Backs New Private Insurance Marketplace
Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, has proposed creation of a Virginia marketplace for private health insurance coverage of people who have none now. Marketplace Virginia would be established as a new division of the State Corporation Commission, which through its Bureau of Insurance currently certifies and oversees health plans sold on the new electronic federal marketplace that began operating Jan. 1. The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee approved the proposal, offered Monday as a surprise substitute to Watkins’ proposal to create a state-operated insurance exchange, and sent it to the Finance Committee to review its fiscal impact on the state. Sens. Stephen D. Newman, R-Lynchburg, and Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, voted against the bill (Martz, 2/4).
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