About 413,000 Californians have been newly enrolled into Medi-Cal in less than two months, and an additional 100,000 have been determined likely eligible for the program during that time, state health officials said.
Approximately half a million Californians will likely be added to Medi-Cal between Nov. 15, 2014, and Jan. 7, officials said.
Covered California launched its second open enrollment period on Nov. 15, 2014. The Medi-Cal program doesn’t have an open enrollment period — eligible Californians can sign up at any time. Many of the people interested in Covered California may have incomes low enough to qualify for Medi-Cal, though, and are referred to that program during open enrollment.
It turns out that’s a lot of referrals.
Anthony Cava, information officer for the Department of Health Care Services that oversees Medi-Cal, said roughly 80% of the applicants who apply through the Covered California web portal and qualify for Medi-Cal are immediately enrolled into coverage.
In all, Cava said, “Medi-Cal enrolled more than 2.2 million consumers in 2014.”
That number likely will continue growing. There are an additional 100,000 individuals who have been deemed to be likely eligible for Medi-Cal and are going through the enrollment process now, Cava said.
Covered California’s open enrollment period ends Feb. 15.
Exchange officials said they have enrolled approximately 144,000 Californians into policies through Covered California from Nov. 15, 2014, to Dec. 15, 2014, with almost 600,000 applications received.
New enrollment numbers from Covered California for the rest of December will be released next week, exchange officials said, before the exchange board meets Jan. 15.