According to an update from Thursday from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Healthcare.gov enrollment numbers drop compared to enrollment numbers in 2018. The update showed that 8.4 million Americans had enrolled in a health plan for 2019, which is down 3.8% from the enrollment count last year, which is more than 8.7 million people.
Those states who utilize Healthcare.gov to sell health plans had failed to obtain new customers. Only 2.1 million people were new customers to Healthcare.gov, which is down 15.8% from the count of new customers in 2018.
Of the customers who enrolled in 2019 coverage, 6.3 million renewed their coverage for 2019, which is up by 0.9% from last year.
A cause for the failed attempt to obtain new customers was the repeal of the individual mandate policy, which required people to be covered with health insurance or else incur a penalty fee. With this rule cut out, those who are relatively healthy and/or young may not be inclined to obtain health insurance coverage.
Another cause for the lack of enrollment could be due to unemployment. Unemployment in the country is down, and premium and silver plan premiums are down by 1.5%.
Read the original article from Modern Healthcare here.
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