The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) releases enrollment snapshots each week for the HealthCare.gov platform. These data points are estimates pulled at a specific point in time for each of the plan selections, call center activity and visits to the HealthCare.gov websites.
The cumulative numbers by the end of week four are below last year’s numbers. Plan selection numbers are down 356,347, or 12.8 percent. In 2017 Healthcare.gov saw a 9.2 percent decrease from 2016. Some decline was expected as there is one day less in 2018 than 2017 for this period of time; however, it isn’t enough to account for all of the decline. Other factors possibly contributing to the decline are the repeal of the individual mandate and the Trump administration’s efforts to promote deregulated short-term plans. South Dakota numbers declined 18.6 percent from week four in 2017 to week four in 2018 showing a more dramatic decline than the national average.
