What a difference a year makes. The second Open Enrollment period for the Health Insurance Marketplaces in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont opened at midnight this past Saturday. So far, so good. This is a big change from the start of last year’s Open Enrollment when so much that could go wrong with the new technology, did.
This year, though, four days into year two of the ACA’s online insurance marketplaces, most reports say that they are working well. According to the federal government, on Sunday alone more than 100,000 people enrolled in the 2015 health plans on healthcare.gov.
Vermont Health Connect (VHC) has also received positive reports so far. The VHC website was shut down for most of the last two months; however, it is up and running now and good for Vermont.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department, the agency responsible for implementing the ACA’s federal online health insurance marketplace, is predicting between nine and ten million people will purchase their medical coverage on healthcare.gov in 2015. That’s two to three million more than bought plans in 2014.
At Northeast Delta Dental, we’re expecting thousands of individuals and families to choose one of our stand-alone plans on either healthcare.gov or VHC again this year.
Our new partnership with Maine Community Health Options (MCHO) is going to be something to watch this year, too. We are handling the claims processing for the pediatric dental benefit they are including in three of their medical plans in Maine and New Hampshire. More than 80% of individuals and families in Maine who bought a medical plan on healthcare.gov last year bought it from MCHO. We’re wishing them equal success as they branch out into New Hampshire this year.
