By the Numbers: Marketplace enrollment in Georgia
316,543 People who enrolled in health plans
91,914 Determined eligible for Medicaid/PeachCare for Kids
87 Percentage who qualified for financial assistance
71 Percentage who signed up for silver plans
57 Percentage who are women
31 Percentage ages 18 to 34
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Georgia marketplace enrollment by ethnicity
Some 224,565 marketplace enrollees from Georgia reported their ethnicity. Of those, the breakdown includes:
41.4 percent white
38.6 percent African-American
14.8 percent Asian
3.6 percent Latino
1.4 percent multiracial
0.1 percent American Indian/Alaska Native
0.1 percent Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Georgia marketplace enrollment by ethnicity
Some 224,565 marketplace enrollees from Georgia reported their ethnicity. Of those, the breakdown includes:
41.4 percent white
38.6 percent African-American
14.8 percent Asian
3.6 percent Latino
1.4 percent multiracial
0.1 percent American Indian/Alaska Native
0.1 percent Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Roughly 177,000 Georgians signed up for health plans offered through the federal Health Insurance Marketplace in the final weeks of open enrollment — one of the largest such surges nationwide, new data shows.
That’s more than the number of people who enrolled in marketplace coverage in the first five months of the website’s operation, according to a federal report released Thursday.
In all, slightly more than 316,000 Georgians have enrolled in new private insurance options created by the Affordable Care Act. In reporting the new data Thursday, the federal government followed its usual practice of disclosing the number of people who selected plans but didn’t account for how many people had actually paid for them. The data nonetheless impressed many observers.
“The power of that last month surge was pretty amazing for Georgia, especially given the lack of support for the law,” said Bill Custer, a professor at Georgia State University and one of the state’s top health care experts.
Custer said Georgia’s enrollment growth wasn’t surprising given that it has one of the highest rates of uninsured in the country. “There clearly is pent-up demand,” he said.
Nationwide, more than 8 million Americans enrolled in health plans during the Obamacare marketplace’s first open enrollment period. Eighty-five percent of them qualified for federal tax credits to help lower monthly premiums.
More than a dozen states saw enrollment at least double since March 1, including Texas (149 percent growth), Georgia (127 percent) and Florida (123 percent), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported.
“More than 8 million Americans now have the peace of mind that their coverage won’t be taken away when they get sick or won’t run out when they need it the most,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius during a conference call with reporters.
Obamacare critics argue, however, that the federal enrollment data is misleading.
House Republicans said Wednesday that a survey of insurers showed that as of April 15 only two-thirds of the 8 million marketplace enrollees had made their first premium payment needed for coverage to take effect.
The Obama administration questioned the findings, though it has not released its own data on how many enrollees have paid. Some large insurers have independently reported higher percentages. Industry experts say they also expect to see an increase in premium payments because of the late flood of enrollees.
The Georgia Insurance Department reported last month that slightly less than half of those enrolled as of the end of March had made a premium payment.
The final number who pay will likely land around 280,000 based on early reports from insurance companies, said Custer with Georgia State. He expects a growing number of Georgians to join the marketplace in the coming years.
“This is the first step of what’s going to be a fairly long implementation process,” he said.
Nearly one-third of Georgians who signed up fall in the coveted 18-to-34 age group — a generally younger, healthier population insurers need to balance the expense of covering for older, sicklier members. Nearly nine in 10 qualify for financial assistance, and 57 percent are women. Nearly 40 percent are African-American.
In addition to marketplace plans, HealthCare.gov determined that nearly 92,000 low-income Georgians are eligible for Medicaid or PeachCare for Kids.
Nationally, more than 4.8 million Americans qualified for Medicaid and its companion program for children through the marketplace.
Georgia is one of 19 states that chose not to expand its Medicaid program as called for by the Affordable Care Act. Sebelius said Thursday that she hopes those states will reconsider. Twenty-six states are moving forward with expansion, while five are still debating it.
To date, 316,000 more Georgians now have health coverage in a state that has historically had some of the highest rates of uninsured nationwide, said Dante McKay, Georgia director for Enroll America. Children with insurance are less likely to miss school; workers are less likely to miss work, McKay said.
“(Enrollment is) very strong considering the time loss early on with the website problems and with this being a new fundamental shift in the way Americans access health insurance,” he said. “That is very encouraging.”
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