The Bay Area is outpacing much of the rest of California in the number of enrollees who have signed up for a plan on the state's health insurance exchange since it opened for business, experts say.
Since Oct. 1, some 22,166 individuals in the Bay Area counties of Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco have signed up for an insurance plan, according to new figures released Tuesday by Covered California.
While the five counties have 16 percent of the state's population, they boast 20 percent of the exchange's total enrollment of 109,296 tallied by Nov. 30. An estimated 13 percent of those eligible for subsidies live in these five Bay Area counties.
Covered California website
"Folks in the Bay Area were quicker to take advantage of the new options under the Affordable Care Act," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a health care consumer advocacy coalition.
"It means we have a disproportionate share of enrollments to date, and that reflects both the strong support in the Bay Area for the law and the fact that there are a lot of people helping to connect people with coverage," he said.
Larry Levitt, a senior vice president at the Menlo Park-based Kaiser Family Foundation, recognized the same trend.
"Enrollment is at a somewhat higher rate in the Bay Area than elsewhere," said Levitt.
Los Angeles County leads the state with 24,957 enrollees, followed by the Bay Area, and then San Diego County with 10,231, the Inland Empire with 9,882 enrollees and Orange County with 9,575.
Not everyone was as effusive about the Bay Area numbers.
"We didn't expect dramatic increases instantaneously," said Santa Clara County Executive Jeff Smith of the county's total 5,666 enrollees, of which all but 1,007 received subsidies.
"We know this is a process that's going to take time because of the way it was structured," said Smith of the new health care law's March 31 open-enrollment deadline. "If people sign up early, they have to pay the premium portion early and the benefit does not start until Jan. 1. So there was no incentive to signing up early."
In Contra Costa County, the reaction was that it's still early in the sign-up process.
"The enrollment figures for our region in October and November provide a snapshot of our early efforts, but do not capture Contra Costa County's expanded outreach that started earlier this month," said county Supervisor Karen Mitchoff of Contra Costa's 4,140 enrollees, including 3,534 who were eligible for subsidies.
"We are only at the beginning of our efforts and expect to see enrollment rates rise significantly," she said.
Tuesday's numbers come on the heels of statewide data released by Covered California last week showing that through the first week of December, at least 156,143 Californians had signed up for a plan, rough one-third of those who have enrolled nationwide. An additional 403,323 individuals have completed an application.
And at least 179,000 Californians will probably be eligible for the expanded version of Medi-Cal, the state's health program for the poor.
The new data revealed that in each of the five Bay Area counties, more than 80 percent of the enrollees were eligible for subsidies, which is consistent with estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that 86 percent of enrollees nationwide would likely receive subsidies, said Levitt.
And while 65 percent of those who are eligible for subsidies selected the "Silver" level of benefits, the level at which the subsidy help is targeted, Levitt noticed a healthy interest in all five counties in the more expensive platinum plan.
He attributed that to the healthy Bay Area economy, with "a lot of startup activity," and higher-income people who are self-employed and buying their own insurance.
"The expectation was that people would overwhelmingly be buying Bronze and Silver plans, and that is not necessarily the case," said Levitt.
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