In the first week of open enrollment, 2,659 new customers signed up for private insurance plans and 8,945 people signed up for Medicaid through Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange.
The figures include people who had not previously had coverage through Access Health. The exchange did not release the number of people who currently have coverage through the exchange and signed up for 2015 coverage.
Separately, 123 people signed up for dental coverage sold through the exchange.
Access Health officials are aiming to sign up 70,000 new customers for Medicaid and private insurance plans during the open enrollment period, which runs from Nov. 15 through Feb. 15.
Officials hope to have 110,000 private insurance customers in 2015. As of October, 74,334 people had private insurance coverage purchased through the exchange, so meeting that goal would require adding more than 35,000 private insurance customers if all current members bought exchange plans for next year.
Although the open enrollment period runs until Feb. 15, people who want insurance coverage that starts Jan. 1 must sign up by Dec. 15. The sign-up deadlines apply only to people buying private insurance. People who qualify can sign up for Medicaid at any point in the year.
When the open enrollment period began at midnight Nov. 15, 65 people were on the exchange’s website to sign up for coverage, acting CEO Jim Wadleigh said. On Monday, the first weekday of the sign-up period, the Access Health call center had its third highest call volume since launching last year.
This is the first sign-up update since open enrollment began. Wadleigh said the exchange will issue sign-up numbers on Fridays.