The Healthcare.gov online marketplace was used by 567,822 consumers to select insurance plans during the third week of open enrollment, according to the “weekly snapshot report” issued by the The Department of Health and Human Services.
Total selections the prior week were 534,778, and the total for the three weeks was 1,645,698, HHS reported. About a third of those selecting health insurance plans on the federal marketplace during all three weeks were new insureds, while two thirds were renewing their coverage.
Nearly 2.43 million users visited the website in the third week of enrollment, compared to 2.61 million the prior week. Of these, 858,692 submitted applications for coverage, compared to 899,784 in the second week of enrollment.
The Spanish-language The CuidadoDeSalud.gov site had just over 50,000 visitors, compared to nearly 53,000 the prior week.
About 740,000 used the “window shopping” feature on Healthcare.gov, along with just over 14,000 on CuidadoDeSalud.gov. The comparable figures for the prior week were 768,000 for Healthcare.gov and 11,742 for CuidadoDeSalud.gov.
Phone calls to the HHS call center totaled nearly 766,000, with an average wait time of 4 minutes and 56 seconds, for English-speaking consumers. This compares to nearly 766,000 calls, with a wait time of 2 minutes and 57 seconds, the prior week. Calls to Spanish-speaking representatives totaled 49,618, down from the prior week’s 50,195, with average wait times for both weeks of 14 seconds.
“We are three weeks into Open Enrollment, and we continue to see demand for the quality, affordable health coverage available through the Marketplace,” said The Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. “More than 1.6 million consumers have selected coverage, including half a million new consumers and over a million existing marketplace consumers who have returned to shop, switch plans or choose their same plan for 2016.”