With the six-month open enrollment period on the federal Health Insurance Marketplace headed toward a close in March, nearly 20 percent of the state’s signups came in the last two weeks of the month, according to new state data.
“Given the opposition to having people covered in the state by state officials, the amount of misinformation, the lack of aid in finding these (health) plans and the terrible, terrible rollout of the website, this number looks pretty good,” said Bill Custer, a health insurance expert at Georgia State University.
State Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens, a steadfast opponent of the Affordable Care Act, released the new state figures on Wednesday and noted that, of the roughly 222,000 enrollments, only about 107,000 of those applicants have actually paid their premiums and have new insurance in force.
In its regular reports on enrollment nationwide, the Obama administration has accounted only for completed enrollments, and not for the numbers of people who have paid. Nationwide, an estimated 20 to 25 percent of enrollees may not end up actually paying, Custer said, but the majority will.
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