Nearly 50,000 people have enrolled in health insurance through state-run insurance marketplaces set up under Obamacare, according to a new analysis, one of the few early glimpses into how many people have signed up for coverage under Obamacare.
The federal government is expected to release enrollment data for HealthCare.gov, which serves more than 30 states, later this week.
Avalere Health, an independent consulting firm, rounded up data from 12 of the 15 state-run marketplaces and found 49,100 enrollments. It excludes data from California, Oregon and Massachusetts, which did not have publicly available data readily available. When possible, Medicaid enrollments were excluded.
“Enrollment in new programs begins slowly and often takes several months to build momentum,” Dan Mendelson, CEO of Avalere Health, said in a statement. “While initial enrollment has been lagging, with aggressive marketing there is still time for awareness of the program to grow and participation to begin.”
By comparing each state’s experience with Medicare Part D and the Congressional Budget Office’s projection of 7 million marketplace enrollees by March 2014, when the enrollment period ends, the firm concluded that the state marketplaces are on average 3 percent of the way to their expected enrollment.
That progress varies significantly across states, from 12 percent in Vermont to 1 percent in Washington, D.C.
