© 2024 WRVO Public Media
NPR News for Central New York
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

More than half a million New Yorkers signed up for health coverage in 2015

comedy_nose
/
Flickr

  The final number of New Yorkers who signed up for health insurance through the state exchange this year tops a half a million.

New York State of Health Marketplace is claiming more than 564 thousand new enrollees for 2015. Add that to last year’s numbers and more than 2.1 million people have used the state exchange for health insurance in the first 2 years of the Affordable Care Act.

Donna Frescatore is the Executive Director of the state marketplace. She’s says a close to 90 percent renewal rate for people with private health plans points to stability.

“More and more, this is about the stability of the enrollment base, and what we certainly saw happen between the close of open enrollment and the beginning of the renewal process is that people reported life changes to us,” she says.

More than two-thirds of this year’s enrollees have signed up for Medicaid -- insurance for low income adults.