Maryland Health Connection has already topped last year’s signup totals

In the first six weeks of open enrollment, Maryland’s state-run health exchange easily bested the total number of signups from the entire 2013-14 period.

Since the new website launched in November, 146,529 people enrolled in a health insurance plan for 2015. In 2013-14, a total of 81,091 people enrolled. That’s one of the key data points of the year-end report released by Maryland Health Connection staffers.
Officials at the Maryland Health Benefits Exchange are happy to release data this year. Unlike last year, they have a website that actually works. After last year’s bungled rollout, they scrapped the former website, and brought in a new contractor. So far, the results point to positive results from the technological upgrades.
The report also included analytics on the website, which reported about 275,000 unique visitors to the website, and an average session time of over 25 minutes.
Among other details:

• CareFirst racked up the the most signups, with the top 7 most-picked plans, and 8 of the top 10. Its BlueChoice HSA Silver $1,300 plan is far and way the most-picked plan, with a total of 21,087 enrollees. The next closest has about 8,000.
• When it comes to geographic data, Montgomery County is attracting the most signups, which makes sense considering it’s the most populous county. Baltimore County and city occupy the third and fourth geography rankings, with 20,000 and 14,000 signups, respectively.
• Age groups are evenly split, with 55-64 year olds slightly ahead of the pack, accounting for 21 percent of the signups. Meanwhile, the 26-34 year-old “invincibles” make up about 16 percent of the enrollees so far.