Maryland saw a nearly 3 percent drop in Obamacare signups for 2018 compared to the last open enrollment, according to final signup figures released Thursday.
The state-run Obamacare exchange enrolled 153,571 people on the individual market for the 2018 coverage year, a 2.6 percent decline from the 157,637 that enrolled for 2017.
The biggest difference between the two years was the change in the duration of the open enrollment period. For 2017, Maryland’s enrollment period stretched from Nov. 1 to Jan. 31, but for 2018 it ran from Nov. 1 to Dec. 22.
The Trump administration had a compressed open enrollment period for healthcare.gov, which is used by residents in 39 states to buy Obamacare plans. It went from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15, a full six weeks shorter than the 2017 open enrollment period.
Healthcare.gov signed up about 8.7 million people. It does not include enrollees from the 11 state-run exchanges, including Maryland’s.
Maryland’s exchange extended its deadline by one week to Dec. 22. However, other state-run exchanges extended it to Jan. 31.
