Enrollment doubles on health exchange, but progress still slow

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That’s right, it’s time for the Friday enrollment report from Maryland Health Connection.

But before I get to those numbers, let’s do a quick week-in-review.

Gov. Martin O’Malley and his health-reform point man, Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, both held press conferences this week to discuss the progress — and lack thereof — of the state health insurance exchange, as well as leadership changes at the top.

On Tuesday, Brown was joined by Carolyn Quattrocki, who was tapped to take over as executive director of the exchange following the Dec. 6 resignation of Rebecca Pearce, and state health secretary Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, who will now oversee operations.

Brown fielded tough questions from reporters about the timeline for fixing the site’s remaining technical issues (and there are several) and whether the governor’s self-imposed deadline of mid-December is realistic.

He was also grilled on whether he should have delayed the site’s launch upon learning in late September that there would be at least some issues with the site.

Then, on Thursday, O’Malley briefed reporters in Annapolis. He brought flow charts and a more informal tone. The governor is apparently holding out hope that 150,000 Marylanders will sign up for private insurance by March 31, the last day to buy coverage without penalty.

That brings us to today’s enrollment report. Here’s where we stand: 5,179 Marylanders had enrolled in a private Qualified Health Plan (QHP) as of Dec. 7. That’s double the last weekly increase.

More than a thousand of those people, however, might not be in the clear — officials say insurers have received information from only about 4,000 of the people who believe they have signed up.

Officials knew these numbers earlier this week, when the press conferences were held (Brown rounded up — I had to ask his spokeswoman for the exact figure).

O’Malley and Brown both admitted that the first half of the rollout has been unsuccessful and emphasized that there is still time left. They also emphasized the number of people who will get Medicaid coverage — 16,496 have found out they are eligible, and another 87,866 people will automatically be entered into Medicaid because they are already in the Primary Adult Care program.

Taken together, we’re at 109,541 Marylanders who are (on track to be) newly insured. It only took a little more than two months. That’s getting closer to 150,000, but officials still have to lure 40,459 people to the exchange within the next ten weeks.

But who’s counting?