California health care sign

A late surge of sign-ups pushed California's health insurance exchange nearly 100,000 enrollees beyond the original projections of the Obama administration, the agency that runs the marketplace announced Thursday.Nearly 1.4 million Californians selected a policy through the state's exchange by Tuesday's end of open enrollment, and 88 percent of those were eligible for government subsidies to help reduce their monthly premiums.'That is a huge number,' Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee said during a news conference in Sacramento. 'We're proud that those Californians are part of history, part of a new era where Californians and Americans have health care as a right and not a privilege.'Among the questions going forward are whether the newly purchased insurance policies will meet consumers' expectations and whether the mix of enrollees will be sufficient to satisfy insurance companies that are participating in the exchange.Insurers said they needed strong sign-ups from younger and healthier people to balance out the older and sicker consumers who sign up for coverage under the expanded benefits of the federal Affordable Care Act. Older people generally need more health care services and are more costly to insure.Insurance industry experts say about 40 percent of enrollees should be in the 18- to 34-year age bracket to make the plans balance financially. The data released by Covered California show that 29 percent of those who enrolled in individual plans were in that demographic. That's slightly higher than the group's representation in California's overall population - about 25 percent.By comparison, 48.4 percent of those who signed up were age 45 to 64.Covered California extended open enrollment for two weeks beyond the original March 31 deadline because its computer system and call centers could not handle the crush of people rushing to sign up for health coverage at the last minute.During that two-week extension, more than 205,000 Californians signed up for coverage, nearly a third of whom were age 18-24, Lee said.Throughout the enrollment period, which began Oct. 1, an additional 1.9 million people gained coverage through Medi-Cal, California's version of Medicaid. The state opted to accept the expansion of the low-income health insurance program that was offered under the federal health reform law.More than one-third of the new Medi-Cal enrollees, 36 percent, were young adults in the 18-to-34 age group.It is not yet known how many of those who gained insurance through the exchange or through Medi-Cal did not have insurance previously. Lowering the number of uninsured across the country was one of the chief goals of the Affordable Care Act.One concern in California and some of the other states running their own health insurance exchanges is whether sign-ups would be robust enough for the agencies to be financially self-sufficient starting next year, as the federal law requires.Lee said the Covered California board would be receiving a preliminary budget for next year and expressed optimism that the agency will be able to cover its operating expenses.'We are very comfortable that this high enrollment assures what was always assured, which is that as we move from being supported with federal funding to being supported with an assessment on premiums, we're going to be in very good shape,' he said.Other details from individual insurance enrollment from the data released Thursday by Covered California:- 85 percent of those who enrolled have paid their first month's premium.- Latinos account for 28 percent of total enrollment, compared to 39 percent in California's overall population.- Whites are 35 percent of enrollees, Asians 21 percent, blacks 2.8 percent and those identifying as mixed race 5.7 percent.- 61.7 percent of enrollees selected a mid-tier Silver plan, which is the one used to calculate subsidies, while 25.7 percent selected the cheapest plan, called Bronze; 11 percent selected either a Gold or Platinum plan, which come with higher premiums but lower deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses.- 94 percent of consumers enrolled with the four large insurers offering coverage on the exchange: Anthem Blue Cross of California; Blue Shield of California; Health Net; and Kaiser Permanente. Seven smaller nonprofit insurers divided the rest.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -