About 87% people who selected Act through during the first open were eligible for financial assistance to lower their premiums for beginning Jan. 1, 2015, according to the Department and Human Services.
HHS also released a Weekly Snapshot with more recent activity the federal exchange , . It shows that from November 15 to December 26, nearly 6.5 million consumers selected a plan or were automatically re-enrolled. ends Feb. 15, 2015.
The figure financial aid covers only the first open , but includes both state and federal exchange activity. During the initial four weeks, HHS reported, more than 4 million people signed up for the first or re-enrolled in for 2015 in both the state and federal exchange marketplaces -- 3.4 million people who used , and more than 600,000 in the 14 states operating their own platforms.
“We’re pleased that nationwide, millions people signed up for starting January 1. The vast majority were able to lower their costs even further by getting , making a difference in the bottom lines so many families,” HHS SecretarySylvia M. Burwell said.
During the ended Dec. 26, 96,400 consumers selected , and 197,400 submitted applications. This brought the totals for the beginning Nov. 15 to 6.49 million plan selections, and 8.19 million applications submitted.
About 452,000 consumers contacted the call center, on average only 2 seconds on hold. these, 28,000 sought a Spanish-speaking representative, also an average 2 seconds.
About 1.38 million used the site, and 43,800 visited the Spanish-language version, CuidadoDeSalud.gov. these, 316,0 used the window-shopping feature, and 5,600 window-shopped the Spanish-language site.
Through Dec. 15, more than 3.4 million people selected a plan in the 37 states that are using the platform for 2015, including Oregon and Nevada. those:
- 87% selected a plan with financial assistance compared to 80% in the year-earlier .
- 33% were under 35 years age, up from 29% last year.
- until nearly the last minute, nearly 1 million consumers selected a plan in the three leading up to December 15, or 28% the total.
- the 3.4 million plan selections, 48% (1.6 million) re-enrolled in a plan and 52% (1.8 million) signed up for the first .
More than 600,000 consumers selected in the 14 states operating their own marketplaces. That includes:
- 161,752 marketplace plan selections in two states only data for new consumers (California and New York);
- 153,011 plan selections in seven states data new consumers and consumers actively re-enrolling in (Colorado, District Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island); and
- 318,075 plan selections in five states data new enrollees, consumers actively re-enrolling in , and automatic re-enrollees (Connecticut, Idaho, Kentucky, Vermont, and Washington).
HHS noted that, because many states extended their plan selection deadlines for Jan. 1 , the report does not include the count consumers who will have selected that begins Jan. 1, 2015.