State must triple enrollment to approach original ObamaCare goal

In order to meet its original enrollment goal of 692,000 enrollments for 2015, Illinois would need to more than double its previous enrollment during the upcoming open enrollment period, thus tripling total enrollment.

Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration is busy issuing media releases and giving interviews as it promotes the second ObamaCare enrollment period, which begins this weekend. But what isn’t being advertised is that the state needs more than double the number of sign-ups from last year, thus tripling total enrollment, over the next three months in order to catch up with the state’s original enrollment goal.

Since the state fell far short of the original enrollment goal for 2014, enrolling only 217,000 in the first open enrollment period, the state needs to enroll an additional 475,000 – or more than double last year’s total sign-ups – in order to catch up to the original enrollment goal for 2015 of 692,000.

As reported in the State Journal-Register, “officials from the administration of Gov. Pat Quinn who promote the state’s Get Covered Illinois health insurance exchange aren’t making projections for the second enrollment period.” This is a tacit admission that state officials want to evade any meaningful evaluation of how the president’s signature health-insurance law is performing in Illinois. And they may already know that Illinoisans are less than enthusiastic to purchase what the government is selling.

In order to meet its original enrollment goal of 692,000 enrollments for 2015, Illinois would need to more than double its previous enrollment during the upcoming open enrollment period, which runs from Nov. 15, 2014, through Feb. 15, 2015. In addition to being a heavy lift, the reality is that we have never even been told how many of last year’s 217,000 enrollees have actually paid their premiums, which would indicate how many actually obtained coverage. In all likelihood, Illinois needs to enroll an even higher number just to keep up.

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