Reality Check: The State Of MNsure
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A big announcement came Friday on Minnesota's troubled health care exchange.
MNsure says it is extending the signup deadline for thousands of Minnesotans who may have had trouble getting on its website.
If you sign up by Dec. 31 you will be covered Jan. 1, even if you don't pay right away and even if you don't have an insurance card in hand.
But payment must be received by Jan. 10.
Meanwhile, enrollment is surging at MNsure and health exchanges around the country. In fact, MNsure enrollment numbers are rising steadily.
MNsure reports 38,955 signups, and insurance policies covering 97,573 Minnesotans, including entire families.
Most of the MNsure signups are in public health care programs: 18,039 Medicaid plans for the poor, and 9,111 MNCare signups for low-income working families. For private insurance plans, the number of signups is 11,805.
But that doesn't mean everything is well.
Website glitches persist, and Gov. Mark Dayton is promising all hands on deck.
"It's unacceptable," said Dayton, the Democratic governor who signed MNsure into law.
"We'll get to the point where it's functioning very efficiently -- almost perfectly," he said. "I don't know when that will be."
Among similar sized states with health exchanges, Minnesota's in the middle of the pack. Kentucky and Washington lead the nation with 92,000 and 84,615 signups. Minnesota's got 38,955. Maryland has 17,054. And Oregon has 9,219.
Here are some of the sources we used for this Reality Check:
Kaiser Family Foundation State Exchange Update
Kaiser Health News
State Health Exchange Enrollments
Kaiser Health News
Oregon Troubles
StatesmanJournal.com
States With State-Run Health Exchanges
The Commonwealth Fund
MNsure Website
MNsure.org
Health Care Enrollment Surging
USA Today
State Health Care Directors Resign
Politico
What Makes a State Health Care Exchange Successful?
USA Today
