Jamie Dupree

Health law enrollments slow in February

By Jamie Dupree
March 11, 2014

For a second straight month, the rate of growth in enrollments for the Obama health law slowed, as the Obama Administration reported that private health insurance signups had gone over 4.2 million people by the end of February.

"Now, during this final month of open enrollment our message to the American people is this: you still have time to get covered, but you’ll want to sign up today – the deadline is March 31st," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

The numbers still lag behind the initial estimates from the Obama Administration, which had forecast a total of 5.6 million enrollments by the end of February and 1.2 million signups in that month.

You can see those original estimates here.

Only four states signed up more people in February than in January - Florida, Nevada, Vermont and Massachusetts.

California and Florida remain the top two in terms of total enrollments - but Texas has now surpassed New York for third place.

Here is the list of the states in order of the number of private health insurance signups - data includes the number of enrollments for February, the total as of the end of January, the end of February, and how February's numbers stacked up in each state when compared to January.

State       February        Total (1/31)       Total (2/28)  % of Jan signups
California 140,850 728,086 868,936 61.43%
Florida 145,195 296,892 442,087 104.56%
New York 33,328 211,290 244,618 61.28%
Texas 87,479 207,546 295,025 98.28%
North Carolina 40,385 160,161 200,546 77.10%
Pennsylvania 36,140 123,681 159,821 85.31%
Michigan 32,574 112,013 144,587 89.24%
Georgia 38,095 101,276 139,371 89.29%
Washington 18,317 88,945 107,262 87.70%
Illinois 25,131 88,602 113,733 91.42%
Virginia 28,616 74,199 102,815 96.93%
Colorado 15,015 68,454 83,469 81.92%
Ohio 18,803 60,122 78,925 93.24%
Tennessee 18,162 59,705 77,867 77.43%
Wisconsin 15,007 56,436 71,443 95.68%
New Jersey 19,565 54,805 74,370 97.56%
Missouri 20,312 54,157 74,469 96.64%
Connecticut 8,800 48,665 57,465 69.48%
Kentucky 6,334 48,611 54,945 40.67%
Indiana 17,237 47,735 64,972 99.68%
Alabama 11,170 43,864 55,034 73.48%
Arizona 14,116 43,495 57,611 90.77%
South Carolina 14,530 41,300 55,830 84.56%
Oregon 4,998 33,808 38,806 32.31%
Idaho 10,962 32,899 43,861 84.47%
Louisiana 12,697 32,864 45,561 82.90%
Utah 10,483 29,419 39,902 97.19%
Maryland 9,011 29,059 38,070 83.54%
Minnesota 3,419 28,611 32,030 37.20%
Oklahoma 8,215 24,667 32,882 84.97%
Nevada 5,938 22,597 28,535 19154.84%
Kansas 6,921 22,388 29,309 84.96%
Arkansas 5,632 21,763 27,395 62.58%
Maine 4,901 20,511 25,412 72.00%
Nebraska 5,175 20,407 25,582 87.08%
Vermont 4,743 19,583 24,326 103.83%
Montana 3,893 18,649 22,542 70.60%
Mississippi 8,204 17,350 25,554 88.17%
New Hampshire 4,715 16,863 21,578 87.04%
Rhode Island 3,156 15,746 18,902 53.10%
Iowa 3,558 11,788 15,346 82.49%
New Mexico 3,392 11,620 15,012 86.27%
Massachusetts 4,826 8,139 12,965 178.02%
West Virginia 2,637 7,962 10,599 85.81%
Wyoming 1,531 5,307 6,838 82.44%
Alaska 1,584 5,082 6,666 91.77%
South Dakota 1,688 5,077 6,765 89.64%
Delaware 1,611 4,927 6,538 97.40%
DC 1,553 4,696 6,249 93.95%
North Dakota 1,181 4,057 5,238 82.41%
Hawaii 1,047 3,614 4,661 73.63%

Enrollment age breakdown

One of the more important details about the enrollment numbers for the Obama health law is the divide between old and young - as the feds have talked about having as many as 40 percent of the signups coming from younger Americans in the 18-34 years old age range.

But the numbers show that is not happening.

Through the end of February, 25 percent of those enrolling for private health insurance are between 18 and 34, while 30 percent are between 55 and 64 - not the spread that had been forecast.

Here is a rundown of how the states are doing in three figures - 18-34 year olds, where the average is 25%; 45-54 year olds, where the average is 23% of enrollments, and 55-64 year olds, where the average is 30% of all signups.

The older the age breakdown, some argue that will mean more money gets drained out of the system, becuase not enough young 'invincibles' have signed up for coverage (many of them tend to pay for insurance, but rarely use it.)

State      18-34      45-54      55-65
Alabama 28% 22% 30%
Alaska 29% 20% 28%
Arizona 19% 18% 30%
Arkansas 22% 23% 35%
California 26% 24% 27%
Colorado 24% 19% 30%
Connecticut 22% 23% 33%
DC 45% 14% 13%
Delaware 21% 22% 33%
Florida 24% 26% 30%
Georgia 28% 19% 23%
Hawaii 19% 19% 33%
Idaho 26% 18% 26%
Illinois 25% 22% 34%
Indiana 24% 21% 35%
Iowa 25% 22% 35%
Kansas 29% 19% 30%
Kentucky 27% 22% 30%
Louisiana 29% 22% 29%
Maine 19% 22% 39%
Maryland 27% 24% 26%
Massachusetts 29% 19% 24%
Michigan 26% 22% 32%
Minnesota 22% 19% 34%
Mississippi 27% 23% 31%
Missouri 28% 22% 31%
Montana 26% 19% 34%
Nebraska 27% 19% 27%
Nevada 23% 19% 29%
New Hampshire 24% 23% 34%
New Jersey 23% 25% 30%
New Mexico 20% 23% 36%
New York 28% 24% 28%
North Carolina 25% 22% 29%
North Dakota 25% 16% 28%
Ohio 21% 21% 36%
Oklahoma 27% 21% 30%
Oregon 18% 21% 41%
Pennsylvania 27% 22% 34%
Rhode Island 26% 23% 29%
South Carolina 25% 23% 31%
South Dakota 29% 18% 32%
Tennessee 25% 23% 32%
Texas 27% 22% 26%
Utah 31% 15% 21%
Vermont 23% 22% 34%
Virginia 28% 21% 26%
Washington 25% 23% 29%
West Virginia 18% 22% 43%
Wisconsin 21% 18% 31%
Wyoming 25% 22% 30%
Average 25% 23% 30%

For a second straight month, the rate of growth in enrollments for the Obama health law slowed, as the Obama Administration reported that private health insurance signups had gone over 4.2 million people by the end of February. "Now, during this final month of open enrollment our message to the ...

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Jamie Dupree

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