March was the busiest month yet for Covered California, the state’s health care exchange.
New numbers released Thursday show more than 400,000 people signed up last month, about a third of the 1.2 million who’ve signed up in total.
Executive Director Peter Lee says the pool of enrollees is changing.
“Our enrollment became more diverse in this last month, particularly among California’s Latino population," says Lee. "Our enrollment became younger in this last month of enrollment.”
He says about 252,000 Latinos have enrolled. He says the number of people aged 18-34, a critical sector of the population, has also increased and now makes up about 28 percent of enrollees.
“I’m happy to note that that hard work appears to have paid off. In March the number of enrollees who self-identified as Hispanic-Latino or Spanish origin surged by 65 percent," he says.
Lee says in the last week of the sign-up period 500,000 additional people created accounts on the website. They have until April 15 to finish the registration process.
Lee says it’s not known how many enrollees are getting insurance for the first time as opposed to how many are switching plans. He says that will be tracked in the future.
The next open enrollment period for Covered California will begin in the fall.
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