Nationwide, 24% of Enrollees are Young Adults – Below Target of 40%
MacIver News Service | January 13, 2014
[Washington, D.C.] Young adults, age 18 to 34, make up 19 percent of Obamacare enrollees in Wisconsin and 24 percent nationwide, according to newly released data from the federal Department of Health and Human Services.In total, about 2.2 million people have signed up for health insurance nationwide on the state and federal exchanges. Almost 1.2 million people signed up through the federal HealthCare.gov website.
In Wisconsin, 40,752 people signed up for health insurance on the federal exchange. The original expectation was that 277,000 people would sign up in Wisconsin.
While 19 percent of the Wisconsin enrollees were young adults, more than double that number were over the age of 55. Wisconsinites over the age of 55 make up 45 percent of the sign ups in the state as of December 28th. Nationwide, 33 percent of enrollees were over the age of 55.
This is the first time the federal government has released data that included the age of enrollees. This data is important because healthy, young adults are expected to carry most of the financial burden of Obamacare.
The Obama administration expected 7 million people to sign up for insurance – which may be an unlikely target with three months left to enroll 4.8 million people – and needed 2.7 million of them to be young people. That means that the administration needs about 40 percent of enrollees to be young adults.
The total amount of Obamacare enrollees is also far less than the total amount of cancelled insurance plans. The MacIver News Service reported in December that 5.6 million insurance plans had been cancelled due to Obamacare.