Yes, it's true...sort of. With the addition of the latest numbers from Colorado, Hawaii and especially California, if you include all ACA Exchange-based enrollments reported to date--both paid and unpaid--the total currently sits at a tad over 3.56 million people. The original CBO projection for exchange-based private QHP enrollment was 7 million, so we've finally hit the halfway mark. Of course, the enrollment period itself is actually over 77% of the way through, so this is more of a purely symbolic milestone than anything else, but it's still worth noting.
There's a few additional caveats as well, of course; if you remove all enrollments known to be unpaid (about 265K) from the 5 states which have broken that out, and then subtract another 10% from the remaining 46 states, you'll only have about 3.05 million enrollments which are paid (or unpaid due to billing problems on the insurance company's end,which can hardly be blamed on the customer or the exchange system). However, this works out nicely as well, since 3.05 million is still over 50% of the revised CBO projection of 6 million total!
Anyway, take a look at The Graph, which has been updated to include the latest numbers...as well as lopping off about 1 million Medicaid enrollments which appear to actually be "normal churn" numbers.
You'll have to visit the site for all of today's updates, which include new data out of Hawaii, Colorado and California...and California...and California; way too much to repost here.
HOWEVER, I am going to repost 2 key graphics here.
First, the updated "February Drop-Off Chart" which I've been so concerned about over the past few days...but am no longer nearly as concerned about now that these three states have been added:
Secondly, a completely updated version of The Graph:
A buttload of great news today, which pretty much neutralizes the bad "Feb. drop-off" karma from the past few days!
Hawaii: A smidge of good news for February (but just a smidge)
Hold the Phone! CA releases new Feb. data: 100K private QHPs added, Feb. rate HIGHER than Jan.
More Excellent California News: 80% of enrollees are paid up; 75% across 5 states
California: Medicaid Enrollments up another 49K total since 2/01
Colorado: More Good Feb. News! Private QHPs up 14%, Feb. daily average UP 4% over January!
Private QHP Enrollments Just Broke 50% of CBO Projection