CMS Issues 2019 Open Enrollment Report, Finds Decreased Healthcare Enrollment Across U.S.

On Monday, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its Health Insurance Exchanges 2019 Open Enrollment Report, finding that approximately 11.4 million consumers selected or were automatically reenrolled in coverage during the 2019 enrollment period. This figure is a decrease from 11.8 million consumers during the 2018 enrollment period. 24 percent of consumers that selected a plan for 2019 were new to the Exchange, representing a decrease from 27 percent during the 2018 enrollment period.

While state-based exchanges were found to hold relatively steady for 2019, enrollment through the federal HealthCare.gov system realized greater declines. Experts point to a likely combination of factors that resulted in decreased enrollment, including the removal of the federal individual mandate tax penalty and reduced federal funding for advertising and enrollment assistance. The full CMS report is available here.