DENVER – Colorado’s health-insurance exchange recovered from a troubled launch and was on track Monday to exceed its worst-case scenario for enrollment for the first time since its Oct. 1 debut.
As of Friday, 35,356 people had enrolled for private insurance through Connect for Health Colorado. Monday was the deadline to sign up for policies that take effect Jan. 1, and the exchange planned to keep its call center staffed until midnight.
Spokesman Ben Davis said that by the end of Monday, Connect for Health Colorado would exceed its most conservative enrollment projection of about 37,000.
The exchange got off to a sluggish start, with just 305 enrollments the first week. Like the national healthcare.gov website, connectforhealthco.com was plagued by bugs that made it impossible for many willing customers to enroll in its first days online.
But numbers began to recover as technical glitches were fixed.
“We appreciate the strong interest among Coloradans to purchase health insurance through Connect for Health Colorado and we are focused on supporting all of our customers to complete their enrollments,” said Patty Fontneau, CEO of Connect for Health Colorado, in a news release.
Coloradans who missed Monday’s deadline have until Jan. 15 to sign up for coverage that would begin Feb. 1, Fontneau said.
In early November, some of the state exchange’s directors worried that delays in fixing the site would cause a surge of enrollments in December and lead to other crashes.
But enrollment numbers continued to get better the last few weeks. More than 12,000 people signed up since Dec. 14.
However, the exchange has had trouble enrolling younger, healthier people, with only 6 percent of enrollees between age 18 and 25 as of Dec. 14, while 28 percent were between age 55 and 64.
The numbers as of a week ago showed 461 people in La Plata County, 161 in Montezuma and 121 in Archuleta had signed up for private insurance through Connect for Health Colorado.
People who don’t have insurance next year will have to pay a $95 fine with their taxes. But many people will qualify for either subsidized private coverage or for government-provided coverage through Medicaid.
So far, Medicaid has proved to be a far more popular option for Coloradans, with 114,192 enrollments through Dec. 14. In October, there were more than 10 Medicaid enrollments for every one paying customer who bought a private policy on the exchange. But the exchange narrowed the gap somewhat as the December deadline approached.
More than 700,000 Coloradans don’t have health insurance.
The online exchange is a crucial component of the federal Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.” Unlike most states, Colorado set up its own online marketplace – with support from both Democrats and business-oriented Republicans – rather than letting the federal government run the website.
The federal website also has experienced high-profile problems. On Monday, The Associated Press reported that the federal exchange quietly extended Monday’s deadline to midnight Christmas Eve. Colorado’s deadline remained Monday.
President Barack Obama signed up for his own policy Monday through the District of Columbia’s health insurance website.
jhanel@durangoherald.com
