Covered California is closing in on 1 million residents signed up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
The state Obamacare operation said “total enrollment in Covered California health insurance plans” reached 923,832 as of March 9. The deadline for 2014 sign-ups looms — March 31.
Taking a more liberal count, Covered California said 3 million Californians have signed up for health coverage through Covered California or Medi-Cal since Oct. 1.
National Obamacare plan enrollment was put at 4.2 million as of the end of last month, a number widely reported as lagging official projections. Covered California has fared better, but its numbers no doubt were hurt by a five-day web site outage in February.
“We’re building momentum on many fronts: among Latinos, among young people and in communities throughout the state,” said Covered California chief Peter Lee, citing the two key target groups for Obamacare. “Californians’ desire for health insurance to protect themselves and their families is building on friends telling friends and family telling family.”
February saw a continued increase in the number of Latinos enrolled — from 119,835 at the end of January to 153,561 through the end of February, Covered California said.
Lee said of the closely watched Latino numbers:
While it is good news that almost 600,000 Latinos have found coverage under the Affordable Care Act, we recognize we have a way to go toward insuring larger numbers of Latinos and Californians in the coming weeks. It’s both a short-term and a long-term, multiyear effort to change the mindset of the uninsured from a culture of coping into a culture of coverage.
Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the group that became United Farm Workers, recently signed on as “a featured supporter” of Covered California’s push for Spanish-language enrollment.
About 22 of Covered California policy holders described themselves as Latino.
Enrollment in the other key group, young adults 18 to 34, “is trending slightly upward” at 26.5 percent of those who have selected a Covered California health insurance plan.
Latinos and young adults are seen as two groups likely to be eligible for subsidized health coverage, by far the most-often-sold type of policy handled by Covered California. About 86 percent of policy buyers received some sort of financial assistance, Covered California said.
Lee confirmed media reports that about 85 percent of those who’d already begun coverage via Covered California had paid their first month’s premiums.
As for Medi-Cal: “In addition to the 1,136,000 applicants determined likely eligible for Medi-Cal coverage through the Covered California Web portal, 968,500 individuals have already enrolled for Medi-Cal coverage,” the Covered California press release said.
The deadline for coverage beginning April 1 was March 15, but the uninsured have until Monday, March 31, to sign up for health care coverage in order not to face tax-time penalties.
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