Federal Health Insurance Exchange Weekly Enrollment Snapshot: Week 1

Week 1, November 1-November 7, 2020

In week one of the 2021 Open Enrollment period, 818,365 people selected plans using the HealthCare.gov platform. As in past years, enrollment weeks are measured Sunday through Saturday. 

Every week during Open Enrollment, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will release enrollment snapshots for the HealthCare.gov platform, which is used by the Federally-facilitated Exchange and some State-based Exchanges. These snapshots provide point-in-time estimates of weekly plan selections, call center activity, and visits to HealthCare.gov or CuidadoDeSalud.gov.

The final number of plan selections associated with enrollment activity during a reporting period may change due to plan modifications or cancellations. In addition, the weekly snapshot only reports new plan selections and active plan renewals and does not report the number of consumers who have paid premiums to effectuate their enrollment.

As a reminder, New Jersey and Pennsylvania transitioned to their own SBE platforms for 2021, thus they are not on the HealthCare.gov platform for 2021 coverage. Those two states accounted for 578,251 plan selections last year, accounting for 7% percent of all plan selections.  These enrollees’ selections will not appear in our figures until we announce the State-based Marketplace plan selections.

Definitions and details on the data are included in the glossary.

HealthCare.gov Platform Snapshot

Glossary

Plan Selections: The cumulative metric represents the total number of people who have submitted an application and selected a plan, net of any cancellations from a consumer or cancellations from an insurer that have occurred to date. The weekly metric represents the net change in the number of non-cancelled plan sections over the period covered by the report.

Plan selections will not include those consumers who are automatically re-enrolled into a plan.

To have their coverage effectuated, consumers generally need to pay their first month’s health plan premium. This release does not report the number of effectuated enrollments.

New Consumers: A consumer is considered to be a new consumer if they did not have 2020 Exchange coverage through December 31, 2020, and had a 2021 plan selection.

Renewing Consumers: A consumer is considered to be a renewing consumer if they have 2020 Exchange coverage through December 31, 2020, and either actively select the same plan or a new plan for 2021.

Exchange: Generally, this report refers to 36 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform for the 2021 benefit year. The states using the HealthCare.gov platform for the individual market Exchange are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

HealthCare.gov States: The 36 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform for the 2021 benefit year, including the Federally-facilitated Exchange and some State-based Exchanges.

Consumers on Applications Submitted: This includes a consumer who is on a completed application submitted to the Exchange using the HealthCare.gov platform. If determined eligible for Exchange coverage, a consumer still needs to pick a health plan (i.e., plan selection) and pay their premium to get covered (i.e., effectuated enrollment). Because families can submit a single application, this figure tallies the total number of people on a submitted application (rather than the total number of submitted applications).

Enhanced direct enrollment (EDE): The pathway for consumers to enroll in health insurance coverage through the Federally-facilitated Exchange. This pathway allows CMS to partner with the private sector to provide a user-friendly enrollment experience for consumers by allowing them to apply for and enroll in an Exchange plan directly through an approved issuer or web-broker without the need to be redirected to HealthCare.gov or contact the Exchange Call Center. Applications and plan selection made through the EDE channel are included in the overall metrics presented above.

Call Center Volume: The total number of calls received by the call center for the 36 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform for the 2021 benefit year over the time period covered by the snapshot. Calls with Spanish speaking representatives are not included.

Calls with Spanish Speaking Representative: The total number of calls received by the call center for the 36 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform for the 2021 benefit year over the time period covered by the snapshot where consumers chose to speak with a Spanish-speaking representative. These calls are not included within the Call Center Volume metric.

HealthCare.gov Users or CuidadoDeSalud.gov Users: These user metrics total how many unique users viewed or interacted with HealthCare.gov or CuidadoDeSalud.gov, respectively, over the course of a specific date range. For cumulative totals, a separate report is run for the entire Open Enrollment period to minimize users being counted more than once during that longer range of time and to provide a more accurate estimate of unique users. Depending on an individual’s browser settings and browsing habits, a visitor may be counted as a unique user more than once.

Window Shopping HealthCare.gov Users or CuidadoDeSalud.gov Users: These user metrics total how many unique users interacted with the window-shopping tool at HealthCare.gov or CuidadoDeSalud.gov, respectively, over the course of a specific date range. For cumulative totals, a separate report is run for the entire Open Enrollment period to minimize users being counted more than once during that longer range of time and to provide a more accurate estimate of unique users. Depending on an individual’s browser settings and browsing habits, a visitor may be counted as a unique user more than once. Users who window-shopped are also included in the total HealthCare.gov or CuidadoDeSalud.gov user total.

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