HealthSherpa Handled 14% of HealthCare.gov 2020 Signups: HealthSherpa

One web-based health insurance broker says it may have accounted for about 14% of HealthCare.gov's health plan signups for 2020 coverage.

HealthSherpa helped about 1.2 million people sign up for coverage during the HealthCare.gov open enrollment period for 2020 coverage, or 143% people than it helped during the HealthCare.gov open enrollment period for 2019 coverage, according to HealthSherpa data.

Federal premium subsidies helped hold monthly out-of-pocket premium costs to $47 or less for the typical consumer who signed up for coverage, according to HealthSherpa.

HealthCare.gov officials revealed this summer that agents and brokers accounted for about 44% of HealthCare.gov's signups for 2019 coverage.

HealthSherpa helps people sign up for Affordable Care Act public exchange plan coverage directly, and it also helps agents and brokers sign their customers up for health coverage. That means activity gains at the Mountain View, California-based company might be a sign that agents and brokers have been selling a lot more individual health insurance.

HealthCare.gov Basics

HealthCare.gov is part of the Affordable Care Act public exchange system. The ACA public exchange system is supposed to be a web-based supermarket for health insurance.

Congress put the laws that created the ACA public exchange system in the ACA in an effort to encourage young, healthy people to pay for private health insurance, by providing an easy way for people to shop for policies.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services set up HealthCare.gov to provide ACA public exchange plan enrollment and administration services for the residents of states that were unable or unwilling to handle all public exchange services themselves.

HealthCare.gov now serves the residents of 38 states. It's open enrollment period, or time when people can sign up for coverage without having what the exchange classifies as a good reason to be buying coverage, ran from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15.

HealthCare.gov Performance Data

HealthCare.gov says it got 8.3 million people signed up for 2020 coverage during the latest open enrollment period. The 2020 signup total is down slightly, from 8.4 million, for 2019 coverage.

HealthCare.gov managers classify a signup transaction as a sale, rather than just a signup when a consumer "effectuates" the coverage by making a payment. In the past, consumers have effectuated about 85% of the ACA exchange plan policies selected.

HealthCare.gov's renewal signup activity fell to 6.2 million for 2020 coverage, from 6.3 million for 2019 coverage.

The number of new HealthCare.gov signups held steady, at about 2.1 million.

HealthCare.gov's biggest market is Florida. Florida signups increased to 1.9 million this year, from 1.8 million for 2019 coverage.

State-Based Exchange Programs

Total ACA exchange plan signup activity is not yet available because states can run their own ACA exchange programs.

California has the biggest state-based exchange, Covered California. Covered California managers have reported that, as of Jan. 4, they had about 2.4 million people signed up for 2020 coverage.

— Read Agents and Brokers Generated 44% of 2019 HealthCare.gov Signups, on ThinkAdvisor.

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