Federal officials say that about 50,000 Kansans have signed up for health care since the Nov. 1 start of the current open enrollment period.
Nearly 130,000 Missouri consumers have done the same.
The numbers include only people who either switched plans or enrolled in coverage for the first time. Consumers who maintained existing coverage won’t be counted until the enrollment period ends on Jan. 31.
Sheldon Weisgrau, who heads the Health Reform Resource Project in Kansas, says it appears the state is on track to exceed last year’s totals even though Coventry Insurance pulled out of the marketplace just before enrollment started.
“We were expecting a lot of confusion and consternation with consumers, and we haven’t seen a lot of that. Our navigators are reporting that consumers aren’t that upset, it’s not that big a deal, and they’re happy to go in and look at new plans," Weisgrau says.
Heading into the enrollment period, about half of the more than 90,000 Kansans who had purchased coverage in the marketplace had Coventry plans.