Obamacare's First Week of Open Enrollment Yields an Interesting Surprise

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/11/22/obamacares-first-week-of-open-enrollment-yields-an.aspx?source=eogyholnk0000001&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article

For the first week of open enrollment on HealthCare.gov, more than 540,000 consumers selected a plan, including approximately 358,000 reenrollees. Additionally, slightly more than 1.15 million consumers submitted applications through HealthCare.gov, presumably to see if they would qualify for an Advanced Premium Tax Credit and/or cost-sharing reductions.




On the surface, 540,000 sign-ups doesn't sound like a lot. For a program that only gives consumers 13 weeks to enroll, that would suggest it's only on pace for an extrapolated 7 million enrollees. But here's the shocker: The first week of open enrollment last year (Nov. 15-Nov. 21) yielded only 462,125 plan selections and 1.03 million applications submitted. In other words, the number of plan selections in the first week jumped by 17%, and application submissions rose by nearly 12%.

What makes the jump this year even more intriguing and impressive is that the Dec. 15th deadline -- the last day a consumer can enroll and expect health coverage to begin on Jan. 1st of the upcoming year -- was a full 15 days closer last year with the Nov. 15th start date. This year, consumers have an extra half month during which to act, which you might have expected would lead to weaker initial enrollment.