More young people but fewer minorities pick ACA plans

More than 4.1 million people under age 35 picked Obamacare health insurance plans so far in this open enrollment period, a small increase compared with the end of the 2014 period, the Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday.

And HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Monday said nearly 11.7 million people enrolled in plans on state and federal exchanges through Feb. 22.

Those numbers run through the end of a one-week enrollment extension for those delayed by issues with Healthcare.gov and its call center. Next week, a new tax-related extension takes effect for those facing penalties for not having insurance last year.

The uptick from 3.3 million people ages 18-34 who enrolled in coverage for 2014 is good news for the law, which needs more younger people to offset costlier and less healthy older enrollees.

Despite that positive note, the percent of minorities choosing plans on the federal Healthcare.gov exchange appears to have slowed.

Despite huge gains in heavily Hispanic South Florida, new data released by HHS shows the percent of Hispanic enrollees has remained the same through this open enrollment period while the percent of African-Americans who picked a plan decreased from 17% to 14%.

A higher percentage of people who signed up, however, declined to answer the question about race and ethnicity, said Meena Seshamani, a surgeon who is director of HHS' Office of Health Reform.

"The absolute number of Latinos enrolled did go up," said Seshamani, who added that the uninsured rate is at an "historic low."

Of those who became insured in the first year of open enrollment, 29% of those who renewed their coverage changed plans, according to the new data. HHS had urged people to shop around after first encouraging people to allow themselves to be automatically enrolled.

That's a much higher proportion than seen in other programs, HHS noted. Only about 13% of Medicare Part D enrolles change plans in a year, and only about 7.5% of those with company-provided insurance switched plans for reasons other than getting a new job.

"That suggests consumers are quite price sensitive, and keeps competitive pressure on insurers," says Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Subsidies to buy coverage on Healthcare.gov -- which are at risk in the case heard by the Supreme Court last week -- greatly reduced the costs for consumers in many states. Almost 1.5 million Floridians, which was 93% of all plan selections, qualified for an average tax credit of $294. In Texas, more than a million people were eligible for an average tax credit of $239 and more than 500,000 North Carolinians qualified for an average tax credit of $315, HHS said.

Despite these big reductions in out-of-pocket costs to consumers, the Congressional Budget Office said Monday that the cost of the Affordable Care Act will be $142 billion -- or 11% -- lower over the next decade than it initially estimated. CBO says the lower costs are due to slower increases in the cost of premiums being subsidized and fewer people are signing up for subsidized coverage or Medicaid.

CBO says it expected more employers to cancel coverage and send workers to exchanges than have done so.

ACA enrollment numbers for 2015 will continue to increase because starting March 15, some consumers in the 37 states that use HealthCare.gov may be able to sign up during a special tax-related open enrollment. To be eligible, consumers must be subject to the penalty for not having health care coverage in 2014 and attest that they were unaware of or didn't understand the new requirement to have insurance.