CDC: Public Exchange Coverage Up, Off-exchange Coverage Down

As public exchange coverage climbed in the third quarter of 2015, use of off-exchange private coverage dropped, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This see-saw effect seems to indicate that U.S. health carriers had more trouble holding on to enrollees in group plans and off-exchange individual policies than they did holding on to enrollees in public exchange plans. Critics of the Affordable Care Act exchange system have noted that such fluctuations are common, as disenrollment tends to occur as the year goes on.  The data also draw a sharp contrast among different income levels in the country (broken down as people with incomes <100% of the federal poverty level, or FPL; those with incomes between 100% and 200% of FPL; and people with incomes >200% of FPL). Private, off-exchange plans lost market share in all three income categories.