Over 2.1 million New Yorkers have enrolled in quality coverage since the New York State of Health marketplace’s launch in 2013! Yesterday the New York State of Health released its report on the second open enrollment period, which ran November 15, 2014 through February 28, 2015. HCFANY is excited to dive into the numbers over the course of the coming weeks; we’ll share our analysis with you via this blog series, on twitter (@HCFANY), and Facebook.

The New York State of Health (NYSOH) goal was to enroll 1.1 million New Yorkers in health coverage in its first three years of operation. It’s an amazing accomplishment that almost double that number of people have been enrolled in only two years! On the individual market, enrollment has soared from less than 18,000 people before the marketplace opened (2012) to 450,000 in 2015.[i] And the marketplace continues to meet a critical need; over 89% of enrollees reported being uninsured when they applied.

The marketplace is also succeeding in making coverage more affordable. Nearly three quarters of enrollees (74%) in the commercial plans – called Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) – received premium subsidies, which help bring down premium costs for middle-income people.

Of the 2,143,413 New Yorkers who have used the marketplace, 73% enrolled in Medicaid, and 95% of those consumers were uninsured at the time of application. We’re already gearing up for the third open enrollment period, which begins November 1, 2015!

This is the first in a series of blog posts about the NYSOH 2015 Open Enrollment Report.

[i] http://info.nystateofhealth.ny.gov/sites/default/files/Insurance%20Markets%20Study.pdf