CHICAGO
According to a report released Feb. 18 by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 347,300 people in Illinois selected plans through the Illinois Health Insurance Marketplace as of the Feb. 15 open enrollment deadline. This is a 60 percent increase in cumulative enrollments compared to the previous year’s total of 217,000 marketplace enrollments.
Get Covered Illinois (GCI) in its own Feb. 18 press release noted that this brings Illinois’ total Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollments to 919,412 including both new marketplace enrollment totals and the expanded Medicaid enrollments of 572,112 as of January 2015.
“Year two of Open Enrollment was incredibly successful. The increase in the number of people who enrolled for coverage shows that GCI’s outreach and education efforts made an impact,” Jose M. Muñoz, Chief Marketing Officer said. “We’re pleased that our public education campaign, which included traditional and digital advertising, and a strong community outreach program supported by more than 700 trained in-person counselors and brokers, was successful in reaching the uninsured, including some of the hardest-to-reach populations across the state.”
GCI made an aggressive push throughout the open enrollment period to encourage enrollment across the state and saw a significant surge toward the end of enrollment. During the final three days of open enrollment, more than 200,000 people visited GetCoveredIllinois.gov – 85,000 on Feb.15 alone – and more than 21,000 people dialed into the GCI help desk. In-person counselors across the state also helped Illinois residents enroll at more than 250 events across the state. Extended hours were offered to provide Illinois residents with increased access to assistance before the Feb. 15 deadline.
The few Illinois residents who were unable to complete their enrollment in the Marketplace due to longer than normal wait times at the Federal Call Center, or technical difficulties qualify for a Special Enrollment Period (SEP), which started Feb. 16 and ended Feb. 22, 2015. Enrollments completed during this SEP will have an effective date of March 1, 2015.
SEPs are also available for individuals and families who experience life-changing events, including getting married, having a baby, losing job-based coverage and several other “qualifying life events.” People who undergo such an event have 60 days from the day of the event to complete their application.
GCI is urging Illinois residents who believe they may qualify for an SEP or Medicaid and small businesses to take advantage of assistance still being offered via the Web, over the phone and in-person through hundreds of community partners statewide.
