With open enrollment just over a month away, the New York State Marketplace has been adding some new and noteworthy features. Many of these are geared toward improving outreach and enrollment efforts to reach the remaining uninsured in New York. About 2.7 million New Yorkers were uninsured before the Marketplace launch. Over 1.4 million had enrolled in plans by the end of August, over 80 percent of whom were uninsured when they application.

In other words, we’ve made incredible progress. And there’s still work to do.

With that in mind, here are a few things to check out:

Events calendar for enrollment assistance 

New Yorkers who are looking to learn more about their options and enroll now have one more way to find certified assistors. The Marketplace now has an interactive events calendar where assistors are posting everything from free health insurance workshops to tabling at community events. Upcoming highlights are a Harvest Festival in Walden (October 4) and a Diwali festival in Hicksville (October 12). An interactive map allows people to search by region.

Enrollment demographics by county and zipcode

New county-by-county enrollment data is now available on the Marketplace website. Click on a county to view enrollment data by type of program, percentage of enrollees who were uninsured at the time of application, race/ethnicity, gender, and age. This new data will help advocates and community-based organizations target outreach efforts in the coming months.

Data is also available down to the zipcode level by type of program. You can view data for up to 10 zipcodes at once by using their new tool here.

Coming soon…the NY State of Health Marketplace in Spanish

Marketplace Executive Director Donna Frescatore announced at recent the Regional Outreach and Enrollment Summits that a Spanish-language version of the NY State of Health website will be available in time for this year’s open enrollment launch on November 15. Last year’s enrollment of Spanish speaking New Yorkers was three times lower than the Urban Institute’s 2013 enrollment projections. Hopefully the new website helps to boost those numbers.

Urban Institute Projections vs. NY State of Health (NYSOH) Actual Enrollment by Language