April 30 was the final deadline to signup for Obamacare. All the numbers are in. Hawaii spent $920 per enrollment, and $87 per uninsured person and enrolled the fewest people in the USA. Nobody spent more and nobody achieved less.
Here is the news:
State-based exchanges spent far more per consumer than states in the federal marketplace did
National Journal: Hawaii spent $920 to enroll each new Obamacare consumer, while Florida spent only $16....
New data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation details the amount spent on consumer assistance for the Affordable Care Act in each state, and like overall enrollment numbers, the state totals vary a huge amount.
Consumer-assistance programs are those intended to help individuals understand and enroll in coverage under Obamacare, including the Navigator program, the In-Person Assister program, and Certified Application Counselors. The totals do not include funding for the exchange systems or other types of public and private outreach....
Overall, the state-based marketplaces spent far more to help get residents enrolled than states in the federal marketplace. State exchanges accounted for 50 percent of total consumer-assistance funds, yet have only 31 percent of all uninsured, according to RWJF. Federal marketplaces accounted for 33 percent of the funding but house 63 percent of the uninsured, and the five partnership states received 17 percent of the assistance funding, yet include only 6 percent of the total uninsured.
State-based exchanges had far more discretion over how much of their exchange establishment grants they would allocate for consumer assistance, while funding on the federal exchange was based to a larger degree on the number of uninsured residents. Thus state-based exchanges had a much larger range in assistance funding: While spending in federal-marketplace states ranged from $16 per enrollee in Florida to $186 per enrollee in Alaska, spending in state-based exchanges was across the board, from $40 in Idaho to $920 in Hawaii.
Top Five Spenders per Enrollee:
- Hawaii: $920 per enrollee, $7,904,918 total (state-based exchange)
- District of Columbia: $645 per enrollee; $6,906,057 total (state-based exchange)
- Arkansas: $442 per enrollee; $19,211,296 total (partnership exchange)
- West Virginia: $385 per enrollee; $7,647,178 total (partnership exchange)
- Maryland: $385 per enrollee; $25,620,449 total (state-based exchange)
Bottom Five Spenders per Enrollee:
- Florida: $16 per enrollee; $15,932,367 total (federal exchange)
- Wisconsin: $20 per enrollee; $2,772,728 total (federal exchange)
- Virginia: $20 per enrollee; $4,263,053 total (federal exchange)
- Pennsylvania: $22 per enrollee; $6,905,518 total (federal exchange)
- Georgia: $23 per enrollee; $7,194,944 total (federal exchange)
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Hawaii’s Exchange Spent $87 on ‘Consumer Assistance’ for Every Uninsured Person in State
NRO: Hawaii’s exchange was particularly troublesome for users from its beginning. Perhaps almost as infuriating for residents is the small fortune that the state spent on efforts to help people sign up; the state is spending $87.86 in “consumer assistance funding” for every eligible uninsured person in the state, according to a new report by the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Hawaii’s insurance exchange ranked among the nation’s most dysfunctional, not working at all for the first two weeks. It was supposed to be self-sustaining starting next year but enrollment — 8,742 as of mid-April — fell short of projections; state lawmakers approved another $1.5 million in spending to prop up the exchange for the next year.
But Hawaii wasn’t the champion spender. The District of Columbia spent $163.90 per eligible uninsured person, according to the report....
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Most Hawaii exchange enrollees didn’t receive aid
AP: Sixty-two percent of the 8,592 people who bought plans as of March 31 didn’t get aid, data released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed. That leaves 38 percent who got help buying a plan.
The numbers run counter to national enrollment figures, for states participating in the federally run exchange as well as for states operating their own exchanges, like Hawaii. Nationally, 85 percent of people who bought plans through an exchange set up under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul got financial aid....
The only other jurisdiction that had a majority of enrollees sign up without financial assistance was the District of Columbia, which enrolled 10,714 people, 84 percent without using financial assistance....
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The last-minute Obamacare shoppers were bargain hunters
WaPo: What explains this federal-state difference in bronze enrollment? Federal subsidies appear to have driven Americans to more expensive silver plans. HHS reported that 86 percent of people selecting plans in the federal exchanges qualified for federal assistance, compared to 82 percent of people in the state-run exchanges.
There was a pretty wide disparity in the percentage of people qualifying for federal subsidies in some state-run exchanges. In the District of Columbia, for example, just 16 percent of sign-ups qualified for premium subsidies. The subsidy eligibility rate was also relatively low in Colorado (60 percent), Hawaii (38 percent) and Vermont (59 percent). In Hawaii's case, major technical problems with the exchange prevented people from applying for subsidies, officials there said.
Related: Feds Release Profile of Hawaii Health Connector Signups
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Crain's Business News: Exchanges with the lowest enrollments (as of April 19, 2014) were Hawaii, 8,592, North Dakota, 10,597, the District of Columbia, 10,714, and Wyoming, 11,790....
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UPDATE final figures May 2, 2014: Hawaii Health Connector Claims 9,785 Enrollees (still the lowest in USA)