The Healthcare.govonline marketplace was used by 804,338 consumers to select insurance plans during the fifth week of open enrollment, according to the “weekly snapshot report” issued by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Total selections in the prior week were 394,732, and the total for the five weeks was 2,844,768, HHS reported. About 37% of those selecting plans on the federal marketplace during the latest week were new insureds, up slightly from prior weeks, likely prompted by the Dec. 15 deadline for insurance to be in effect as of January 1.
About 2.8 million users visited the website in the fifth week of enrollment, compared to 1.9 million the prior week. Of these, 1,065,877 submitted applications for coverage, nearly double the 565,001 of the fourth week of enrollment.
The Spanish-language CuidadoDeSalud.gov site had nearly 95,000 visitors, compared to about 33,700 the prior week.
More than 1 million used the “window shopping” feature on Healthcare.gov, along with about 15,700 on CuidadoDeSalud.gov. The comparable figures for the prior week were 627,000 for Healthcare.gov and 8,600 for CuidadoDeSalud.gov.
Phone calls to the HHS call center totaled nearly 1.1 million, with an average wait time of 12 minutes and 14 seconds, for English-speaking consumers. This compares to about 485,000 calls, with a wait time of 3 minutes and 41 seconds, the prior week.
Calls to Spanish-speaking representatives totaled almost 67,000, up from the prior week’s approximately 50,000, with average wait times of about 16 seconds, up from 11 seconds in Week 4.
“While we have more work to do, more than 1 million new consumers have signed up for affordable quality coverage through Healthcare.gov," said Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell.
"The average returning Marketplace consumer who has shopped and chosen a new plan will pay less in premiums after their tax credits this year than they were paying last year," she added.
The Secretary noted that "time is running out to sign up for a health plan that begins on January 1."
The Health Insurance Marketplace report includes the 38 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform. Later in the Open Enrollment period, HHS will produce more detailed reports that look at plan selections on Healthcare.gov and State-based Marketplaces.