In Colquitt County in rural southwest Georgia, nearly 80% of the people who signed up for healthcare coverage through a federal marketplace in 2015 were new to the program.
Other counties in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas dominated the top of the list with similar percentages, according to county-level enrollment data for the federal marketplace recently released by the CMS.
National and state-level data released earlier this year showed the overall percentage of new sign-ups was 55%.
Experts have said the new enrollment numbers exceeded expectations, likely because of better websites and increased outreach and education efforts.
The CMS data set does not break out how many people may have dropped coverage between 2014 and 2015.
But it does show the number of new enrollees and the number of people who shopped or switched plans, along with totals for those who were automatically re-enrolled, as shown in this interactive map. (Some counties in Nevada and Oregon show 100% new enrollees because those states switched to the federal enrollment portal HealthCare.gov in 2015).
The county-level numbers the CMS posted also include other details, such as enrollee race, income and subsidy levels.
In 2015, 8.84 million enrolled through federal health insurance marketplaces in the 37 states using the HealthCare.gov platform.
Another 2.85 million enrolled through state programs in 13 states and the District of Columbia operating their own marketplace platforms. This state program data was not included in the county-level data shown here.
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