Marketplace Weekly Enrollment Snapshot: Week 1

Week 1, November 1-November 6, 2021

In week one of the 2022 Open Enrollment Period, approximately 774,000 people selected individual market plans through the 33 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform. As in past years, enrollment weeks are measured Sunday through Saturday. 

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.

2.1 million people newly gained access to affordable health care coverage during the 2021 Special Enrollment Period (SEP) on HealthCare.gov ahead of the 2022 Open Enrollment Period. Additionally, three states including Kentucky, Maine and New Mexico, transitioned to State-Based Marketplaces (SBMs) for the 2022 Open Enrollment Period. These factors should be considered in any year-over-year HealthCare.gov enrollment comparisons. As in past years, the final Open Enrollment numbers, including SBM numbers, will be provided after the Open Enrollment Period ends in all states. Learn more about the 2021 SEP, please visit https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/2021-sep-final-enrollment-report.pdf.

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

HealthCare.gov 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 2021 Marketplace coverage through December 31, 2021, and made a 2022 plan selection.

Renewing Consumers: A consumer is considered to be a renewing consumer if they have 2021 Marketplace coverage through December 31, 2021, and either actively select the same plan or a new plan for 2022.

Marketplace: Generally, this report refers to 33 states with Marketplaces that use the HealthCare.gov platform for the 2022 coverage year. These states are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

HealthCare.gov States: The 33 states with Marketplaces that use the HealthCare.gov platform for the 2022 coverage year, including the Federally-facilitated Marketplaces and State-based Marketplaces that use the federal platform (HealthCare.gov). For 2022, Kentucky, Maine, and New Mexico transitioned to state Marketplace platforms and are not included in the 33 states using HealthCare.gov for 2022.

Consumers on Applications Submitted: This includes a consumer who is on a completed application submitted to the Marketplace using the HealthCare.gov platform. If determined eligible for Marketplace 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).

Call Center Volume: The total number of calls received by the Marketplace Call Center for the 33 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform for the 2022 coverage year over the time period covered by the snapshot. Calls with Spanish speaking representatives are not included in this total.

Calls with Spanish Speaking Representative: The total number of calls received by the Marketplace Call Center for the 33 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform for the 2022 coverage 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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