Covered Calif. on Track To Meet Enrollment Goals, Officials Say

With less than a week left in Covered California's second open enrollment period, exchange officials say they expect to reach their enrollment goal with a last-minute surge in sign-ups, KPBS reports.

The open enrollment period began Nov. 15, 2014, and runs through Feb. 15 (Goldberg, KPBS, 2/10).

Enrollment Surge Expected

According to U-T San Diego, Covered California officials last year projected that about 500,000 new consumers would enroll in coverage through the state-run exchange (Sisson, U-T San Diego, 2/10). As of Feb. 2, about 288,558 new enrollees had signed up for a plan (California Healthline, 2/9).

Dana Howard, deputy director of communications and public relations at Covered California, said, "I think that we're on a good pace right now" (KPBS, 2/10).

Meanwhile, exchange spokesperson Roy Kennedy said, "We definitely expect the numbers to increase this week. That is what we saw last year."

According to U-T San Diego, about 156,000 individuals signed up for a health plan through the exchange during the final week of the first enrollment period.

Kennedy said he does not expect that the exchange will need a deadline extension like it did last year, in part because Covered California's website has been "updated significantly" to handle an increase in traffic.

Meanwhile, officials said they hope to re-enroll all 1.1 million residents who signed up for coverage last year. So far, about 92% -- or 944,000 -- individuals have renewed their plans (U-T San Diego, 2/10).