9,800 are enrolled but 31,310 applied

The Hawaii Health Connector, the online marketplace responsible for implementing President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act in Hawaii, enrolled 9,800 residents as of Wednesday’s final deadline for its first year of providing coverage.

The Connector collected 31,310 individual applications as of Saturday but was unable to enroll two-thirds of those applicants despite a push in the final two months.

Tom Matsuda, head of the Connector, didn’t respond to questions as to why the Connector couldn’t enroll more applicants even after it had increased staff to help people complete applications.

“It’s quite alarming, to say the least,” said House Consumer Protection & Commerce Committee Chairman Angus McKelvey (D, West Maui-Maalaea-North Kihei). “I hope nothing is going to happen to (applicants who weren’t enrolled). Then who’s going to pick up the tab? They’ll show up in the emergency rooms because they didn’t get through by the deadline.”

The next time individuals can get insurance through the exchange is Nov. 15.

A major problem that held up Connector sign-ups was that applicants seeking tax credits were first routed to the state Department of Human Services to see whether they qualify for Medicaid, the government insurance program for low-income residents.

Consumers were held up at that point because the DHS didn’t collect information the Connector needed to determine tax credit eligibility and because the two organizations’ computer systems were incompatible, the Connector said, causing a bottleneck in enrollments on the exchange.

Connector officials couldn’t say whether the 9,800 who did enroll actually paid their premiums to get covered. Hawaii Medical Service Association and Kaiser Permanente, the only two health insurers operating on the exchange, didn’t immediately know, either.

The Connector received $204.3 million in federal grants to build a system that has been plagued with software problems since its launch Oct. 15, two weeks late. It has spent roughly half of the federal money, which cannot be spent after the end of this year.

The state Legislature budgeted $1.5 million for Connector operations for the first half of next year. That was less than one-third of the $4.7 million the Connector said is necessary to run the troubled health insurance exchange.

Lawmakers also approved measures to increase legislative oversight of the organization and changed the composition of the board of directors to eliminate health insurers.