Dive Brief:
- According to a report in The New York Times, several health insurers have indicated that about 80% of people who signed up for health plans through the ACA have paid their first premiums.
- At Aetna, for example, 500,000 of the 600,000 ACA exchange enrollees have made an initial premium payment.
- Meanwhile, the organization that sells Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans of Illinois, Montana, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico told The Times that only 15% of enrollees had missed the first premium payment through April.
Dive Insight:
Large percentages of enrollees paying their first premiums for exchange policies is another indicator that the ACA is meeting its goals. However, there is one potential snag on the horizon. America's Health Insurance Plans has noted that the widely-publicized total of 8 million registrants for ACA policies may be a fuzzy number, as it includes numerous duplicate enrollments from people who tried to sign up multiple times due to website errors. There has yet to be any verification of those figures.