NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Covered California and the California Department of Health Care Services have released the latest health care insurance enrollment numbers through Dec. 31.
From Oct. 1, 2013, to Dec. 31, 2014, under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 27,853 consumers in mostly rural Northern California counties enrolled in subsidized and nonsubsidized Covered California health insurance plans.
The new total represents a 41-percent increase from the 19,732 enrollments recorded through Dec. 31, 2013.
The improving pace of enrollments in the northern counties is due in part to enhanced aspects of Covered California’s customer service.
The agency has increased staff to answer consumer calls, added phone lines, improved its website efficiency, expanded its live Web chat function and upgraded its Spanish-language Web pages.
The Northern California counties of Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne and Yuba represent about 4 percent of the statewide enrollment.
The local total includes 25,188 consumers eligible for financial subsidies. These counties encompass Covered California pricing region 1.
For the four-month period, which is two-thirds of the open-enrollment period for 2014 coverage, 728,410 consumers enrolled in plans statewide.