Dive Brief:
- Covered California, the state's health exchange, will kick off Nov. 1, the first day of the open enrollment period, with a bus tour starting in Los Angeles as well as a $29 million ad campaign aimed at about 750,000 middle and low-income residents who qualify for subsidies but have yet to sign up for health insurance.
- The exchange will also host enrollment drives at 500 locations throughout the state.
- Established under the Affordable Care Act in 2013, the exchange offers sliding scale subsidies to those without health insurance, and estimates roughly 4 million Californians currently lack insurance. Half of those do not qualify because they are not legal residents, and 1.4 million are eligible for Medi-Cal, but haven't signed up.
Dive Insight:
Although those who receive lower incomes have been signing up in high numbers, according to the Kansas City Star, those who qualify for subsidies have not been signing up as quickly. Covered California executive director, Peter Lee, told the publication, "They may be signing off the exchange without subsidies and that's a piece of information we don't know."
Interestingly, a survey commissioned by Covered California showed more Californians learned about the exchange through the news instead of paid advertising which, according to the Kansas City Star, Lee said was surprising. The exchange fell short last season of its goal to sign up 1.7 million people for private insurance.
The exchange now has 1.3 million active members and expects to add between 295,000 to 450,000 during the upcoming enrollment period.