Private health plans up 169 percent since Thanksgiving week – 27 percent of enrollments
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Since Thanksgiving week, enrollments through Kentucky’s health insurance website, kynect, are up nearly 93 percent – and more than 1 out of every 4 signups is for private health insurance.
As Kentucky’s health benefit website administrators predicted, thousands of Kentuckians made final decisions on their family’s health care plans by Dec. 23, the deadline to ensure their coverage would be effective New Year’s Day.
Purchases of private health plans soared again, with 5,630 new enrollments since last week. Since Thanksgiving week, enrollments in private health insurance have swelled by 169 percent.
kynect administrators strongly encouraged those who have enrolled in private insurance plans to pay their first premium by their insurer’s deadline to ensure coverage begins promptly. Payments must be received by insurers by Jan. 10.
However, open enrollment continues through March 31 for any Kentuckian seeking health insurance. Those who apply over the next couple weeks can have coverage activated as soon as Feb. 1.
kynect’s technology team had anticipated a post-Thanksgiving increase in web traffic, applications and enrollments as individuals made decisions on coverage in advance of the Dec. 23 deadline. The team increased capacity in order to meet that demand.
Since open enrollment began on Oct. 1, kynect has enrolled nearly 1,300 Kentuckians in new health coverage each day. kynect has been hailed as a national model since its launch for its smooth operation and easy interface for users looking for affordable health coverage.
Information for newly insured
If you signed up for coverage on or before Dec. 23 but haven’t yet received your insurance cards in the mail, don’t worry. Insurers are processing a high volume of new enrollments.
To verify coverage with your insurer, go to your kynect account. On the dashboard, click “View Details”, then “Future Enrollments” to get your Enrollment ID Number.
Providing your kynect Enrollment ID Number to your insurance provider will assist issuers in locating new enrollees in their systems.
Welcome packets and invoices should arrive soon for people who signed up in the past several weeks.
Weekly statistics report
The below statistics reflect activity on kynect as of 11 a.m. Monday, Dec. 30:
- 747,359 unique visitors viewing nearly 24.3 million web pages
- 544,185 people conducted preliminary screenings to determine qualifications for subsidies, discounts or programs like Medicaid – about 26,000 new screenings since last week
- 116,152 Kentuckians are enrolled in new health coverage, including Medicaid and private insurance – a 16 percent increase over last week
- 84,480 have enrolled in Medicaid
- 31,672 have enrolled in a qualified health plan – which is a 22 percent jump in private health insurance enrollments since last week, and a 169 percent increase since Thanksgiving week
- 40 percent of the enrollees in Medicaid or qualified health plans are under 35 years old
- 39,814 have been found eligible for a subsidy to purchase a qualified health plan, but some have not yet chosen a plan
- 10,106 have enrolled in dental plans
- 1,269 small businesses have started applications for employee coverage; 513 of those businesses have completed applications and are eligible to offer coverage to employees.
- More than 304,000 calls processed by the kynect call center.
For further updates on kynect numbers, visit governor.ky.gov/healthierky. Statistics will be updated there regularly.
