In Kaiser's newly updated estimates of the percentage of potentially eligible residents each state has enrolled in health plans through its ACA marketplace, New York gets short shrift.
According to Kaiser's measure, New York's health exchange is at just 26% capacity. But that's because the state launched a Basic Health Plan (BHP) that provides ultra low-cost insurance* to residents with incomes up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) who are not eligible for Medicaid. About 155,000 enrollees in the BHP (dubbed the Essential Plan) would have been eligible for subsidized private plans had the state not launched the BHP.
As I mentioned yesterday, Kaiser's more meaningful measure is the percentage of the subsidy-eligible population that each state has enrolled in subsidized private plans (because those who don't qualify for subsidies mainly buy off-exchange).Kaiser updates that metric bi-annually, but hasn't done so yet in the wake of the 2016 enrollment period. But based on its last estimate of the subsidy-eligible population in each state, we can take a stab at New York's current success rate.
Last September, before New York launched the Essential Plan, Kaiser estimated that the state had 532,000 residents potentially eligible for private plan subsidies. The Essential Plan currently has 379,559 enrollees. But 225,000 of them are in a special category: they are legally present noncitizens that the state was previously enrolling in Medicaid purely on its own dime (see note below**). Roughly 155,000 Essential Plan enrollees would have fit Kaiser's "potentially eligible population" for subsidized private plans last fall. In fact, most of them probably were in private plans.***
In addition, in 2016, New York enrolled 271,964 residents in private plans through its ACA exchange. According to HHS' spreadsheet of state level data, 54% of those private plan enrollees were subsidized, or a little shy of 147,000. Add that to the 155,000 Essential Plan enrollees who would have been eligible for subsidized private plans last year, and approximately 302,000 enrollees in the two programs meet Kaiser's "potentially eligible" criteria. That's 56.7% of 532,000, Kaiser's previous "subsidy-eligible" estimate. In other words, about 57% of New York's population that would have been eligible for subsidized private plans as of last fall are now enrolled either in such plans or in the Essential Plan [updated and corrected, 3/19 -- previously I missed the spreadsheet data].
According to Kaiser's measure, New York's health exchange is at just 26% capacity. But that's because the state launched a Basic Health Plan (BHP) that provides ultra low-cost insurance* to residents with incomes up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) who are not eligible for Medicaid. About 155,000 enrollees in the BHP (dubbed the Essential Plan) would have been eligible for subsidized private plans had the state not launched the BHP.
As I mentioned yesterday, Kaiser's more meaningful measure is the percentage of the subsidy-eligible population that each state has enrolled in subsidized private plans (because those who don't qualify for subsidies mainly buy off-exchange).Kaiser updates that metric bi-annually, but hasn't done so yet in the wake of the 2016 enrollment period. But based on its last estimate of the subsidy-eligible population in each state, we can take a stab at New York's current success rate.
Last September, before New York launched the Essential Plan, Kaiser estimated that the state had 532,000 residents potentially eligible for private plan subsidies. The Essential Plan currently has 379,559 enrollees. But 225,000 of them are in a special category: they are legally present noncitizens that the state was previously enrolling in Medicaid purely on its own dime (see note below**). Roughly 155,000 Essential Plan enrollees would have fit Kaiser's "potentially eligible population" for subsidized private plans last fall. In fact, most of them probably were in private plans.***
In addition, in 2016, New York enrolled 271,964 residents in private plans through its ACA exchange. According to HHS' spreadsheet of state level data, 54% of those private plan enrollees were subsidized, or a little shy of 147,000. Add that to the 155,000 Essential Plan enrollees who would have been eligible for subsidized private plans last year, and approximately 302,000 enrollees in the two programs meet Kaiser's "potentially eligible" criteria. That's 56.7% of 532,000, Kaiser's previous "subsidy-eligible" estimate. In other words, about 57% of New York's population that would have been eligible for subsidized private plans as of last fall are now enrolled either in such plans or in the Essential Plan [updated and corrected, 3/19 -- previously I missed the spreadsheet data].
