Many Minnesotans may be waiting until the 11th hour to enroll in full-year insurance coverage through the state's insurance exchange, MNsure.
About 1,500 shoppers signed up for commercial coverage through the exchange in the past week, bringing the total to 26,455. That's less than half the revised total enrollment target.
The pace of enrollments may have suffered in the past week because many people, busy during the December holidays, are waiting until the New Year's Eve enrollment deadline to buy coverage that will begin on Jan. 1.
"People have until next Wednesday to enroll, and we know from past experience that people are extremely deadline-oriented when it comes to this sort of thing," MNsure spokesman Joe Campbell said. "I would be careful to draw too many conclusions from last week's enrollment numbers."
State officials have urged the public not to wait to enroll, and they even mailed out reminders to 24,000 households in mid-December.
Last week MNsure officials announced they were extending the enrollment deadline until noon on Dec. 31 after several of the commercial carriers that sell policies on the exchange moved their own enrollment deadlines back to the same day.
Consumers can enroll in subsidized commercial health plans through the exchange until Feb. 15, but coverage purchased after Wednesday will not begin on the first of the year.
MNsure's budget assumes it will enroll 67,000 people in commercial plans by the Feb. 15 deadline.
