Fewer than 3,000 people in Texas signed up for health plans in the first month of enrollment through the Affordable Care Act website, according to data released today [PDF] by the Health and Human Services department.
Other Texas findings in the data:
- 11,682 Texans were determined to be eligible for CHIP and/or Medicaid through the federal health care marketplace, HealthCare.gov.
- Almost 54,000 Texans actually completed applications. Those applications would cover more than 108,000 individuals.
- Most of those applicants – over 80,000 – are eligible to enroll in a health insurance plan available through the federal marketplace– but they haven’t done so yet.
The first deadline to enroll for insurance is Dec.15.
“I think the takeaway from low enrollment in month one is that it’s month one,” says Stacey Pogue, a senior policy analyst with the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank based in Austin. “So we’ve had four weeks of enrollment, and for the most part we’ve had a website plagued with problems.” Texas was one of several states that declined to set up its own health care marketplace, relying on the federal marketplace instead.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has vowed the Obama administration would have HealthCare.gov fixed by the end of November.
