The federal health-care exchange’s abysmal success rate
Technical issues have plagued the rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s online health insurance exchanges — digital marketplaces where individuals can browse and apply for health insurance coverage. States decided whether they would create their own exchange or, if they preferred, have the federal government do it for them (or create one through a partnership with the federal government).
Typically, states that embraced the health-care law, such as California, chose to create exchanges, while states that were resistant to it, such as Florida, defaulted to the federal exchange. However, the states that defaulted to a federal exchange are facing a host of technical issues and are fairing, on average, much worse than states with their own exchanges.
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See how your state's health insurance exchange did during the first month of enrollment.
Eligibility is high across the board
A majority of applicants in a majority of states have been deemed eligible for a health insurance plan, regardless of the type of exchange operating in that state. This figure does not include applicants who are eligible for coverage under Medicaid or CHIP.
People in states with federal exchanges aren't submitting as many applications
Three states with a state-run health insurance exchange (Oregon, Maryland and Hawaii) have the worst applicant-to-total-population rate, but the entire bloc of states with the federal health insurance exchange fall directly behind them.
States with federal exchanges have the lowest success rates
Of the applicants who are deemed eligible, only a fraction have successfully enrolled in a health insurance plan. Again, states with the federal health insurance exchange form a cohesive bloc. This time, they represent the lowest rank.
States with a federal or partnership exchange
States with a state exchange
Eligibility rate
Percent of state population applying for coverage
Percent enrolled in a plan
The bulk of states with the federal health insurance exchange rank highly in terms of who is eligible for coverage.
Rhode Island, Maryland and Oregon (all with state exchanges) lag behind, but it's unclear whether this is because of technical issues with the online marketplace, bureaucratic hangups or data errors.
NOTE: Some data were not available for Hawaii, Maryland, New York and Oregon. Nevada, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia did not have sufficient data to be included.
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