At the moment, only about 6,000 people have enrolled, but it requires over 136,000 to meet its goals.
The Colorado health insurance exchange is well behind its goals for encouraging individuals throughout the state to enroll in their coverage in order to comply with the so called individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act.
Far fewer consumers are purchasing the coverage that they need to comply with the healthcare reforms than expected.
In fact, at the moment, the estimates of the Colorado health insurance exchange’s performance are that the enrollment numbers are currently just over half of the worst case projections that were created by the state. This represents another version of the struggles that are being seen in many of the states across the country, including those served by the federal government’s website.
The Colorado health insurance marketplace estimates passed the 6,001 mark last week.
This figure was announced by the exchange website, itself. There have been more enrollments since that time, but it is still not even nearly what it should be. The projections of the officials from the exchange board had been that the lowest possible enrollment numbers that would be experienced by the middle of November is 11,108. Unfortunately, the reality is that only just over half of that projected worst case has been reached.
In order to be able to cover the expenses generated by the exchange, the state needs to be able to enroll a much greater number of people. The hope was to be able to bring in 136,300 enrollees for next year so that $6.5 million could be raised in order to cover a portion of the expenses, which total $51.4 million.
The media has gained access to certain emails that have been exchanged by the board members, as a result of the laws for open records. What they revealed was that the shortfall in enrollments from the Colorado health insurance exchange is causing some of those board members to express concern. They are also worried about an upcoming traffic jam that could occur as the deadline of December 15 approaches. As consumers have only until that date in which to purchase the coverage that would start with the beginning of 2014, if everyone waits until the last minute, there could be a massive enrollment flood, all at one time, which could lead to additional struggles in the state.
