Dive Brief:
- Health plans could soon be adding millions more new members to the roster in upcoming months. This includes consumers who haven't finished their health insurance exchange enrollment and others who have bypassed the exchanges to sign up directly with insurers.
- With the federal government extending the enrollment deadline to mid-April, large numbers of consumers are still likely to complete their enrollment. For example, in California, about 30,000 people are currently working on finishing their application.
- Meanwhile, other members are coming directly to insurers. For example, WellPoint said that about 20% of new enrollees signed up directly with them.
Dive Insight:
With consumers seemingly taking advantage of the health exchange deadline extension, and large numbers of consumers going straight to insurance companies, it looks like we're seeing quite a rush to enroll. It's far too early to see what effect this will have on the insurers, but it's likely to be a good one if they've priced their policies appropriately. At this point, with more than 7 million enrolled already through the exchanges, it seems unlikely that there will be any further talk of repealing the ACA.