State exchanges enroll more than 750,000 in first month

(Article updated with new figures at 6:20 p.m ET Dec. 18, 2014.)

More than 750,000 people have selected or re-enrolled in a qualified health plan across 14 state-based exchanges, according to state-released estimates.

The federal health insurance exchange, Healthcare.gov, has seen 2.5 million enrollees as of Dec.12, bringing total state and federal enrollment and re-enrollment to 3.2 million people. About a third of those who signed up for 2014 coverage did so through state exchanges. The portion of state sign-ups this year is running around 23%

The 3.2 million total sign-ups to date is more than a third of the 9.1 million individuals HHS predicted would seek 2015 enrollment, which runs through Feb. 15.

Only a handful of the state exchanges have publicly clarified what portion of its enrollees are new sign-ups compared with returning customers. Minnesota, for instance, said 9,983 of the 23,797 people who had signed up for a qualified plan as of Dec. 16 were renewals.

Other states are seeing renewals account for a majority of applications. Among the 84,975 Kentucky residents who have signed up for a qualified plan thus far, only 9,215 are newly enrolled. And just over 10,000 of the 55,925 people joining qualified plans in Washington state are new.

In other instances, like New York and California, only new enrollee figures have been released, while re-enrollment efforts are ongoing. New York's enrollment netted nearly 200,000 new customers as of Dec. 17, while California has enrolled just over 144,000.

State exchanges have been more aggressive in their outreach efforts this year, exchange officials said during a Families USA teleconference. California and Kentucky exchange directors, for example, said they're relying more on storefronts because they know many people prefer in-person support.

States with their own exchanges that have released figures for the current open-enrollment period include California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Thus far, the CMS has declined to release enrollment data from the state exchanges during press briefings on ACA signups, citing uncertainty about the accuracy of enrollment figures. Leadership from the state marketplaces expressed some confusion over the claim Wednesday.

“We submit data every week, do a press release that comes through our governor's office weekly and [state exchange directors] have a call with HHS every other week,” Carrie Banahan, executive director for the Office of the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange said.

What might be giving the federal agency pause is that each state uses a different approach to handle re-enrollment, which makes it difficult to seamlessly put the states' data into weekly HHS enrollment reports, said Richard Onizuka, CEO of the Washington Health Benefit Exchange.

Tuesday, research firm Avalere estimated there will be between 4.5 and 6 million new enrollees by Feb.15 in state and federal health insurance exchanges. The estimate was based on the initial pace of sign-ups in the first three weeks of open enrollment. By the end of 2015, enrollment is on track to reach between 9.5 and 11.5 million signups, including consumers renewing their plans, Avalere said.

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