Health Status of ACA Enrollees by Sign-Up Month

Using their daily-tracking surveys since October 1, 2013, the operators of the Reuters/Ipsos Poll have been able to characterize trends in health status of people who have been signing up for insurance through the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare exchanges (hat tip to HuffPollster). In October, 69% of ACA enrollees who participated in the Reuters/Ipsos surveys claimed to have some significant health issue, whereas 31% reported none. The trend began shifting in November, however, with 55% of that month's enrollees claiming a health issue and 45% not. For January (which is less than half over), the numbers have reversed: 60% of this month's enrollees now report no major health issue, and 40% do. This development is important because, in order for insurance companies to cover the treatment of the sickest of its policyholders, they need a large volume of healthy subscribers to pay into the system without needing as much treatment.