Medicaid enrollments in Rhode Island are soaring, with 35,821 people newly signed up as of Feb. 8 � way ahead of projections.

Medicaid enrollments in Rhode Island are soaring, with 35,821 people newly signed up as of Feb. 8 � way ahead of projections.

Additionally, enrollment in private insurance through HealthSource RI continues to accelerate; 16,512 signed up as of Feb. 8, up from the previous month�s cumulative total of 11,770. Rhode Island has already exceeded the Obama administration�s target of 12,000 by March 31.

Numbers released Tuesday by HealthSource RI, the marketplace where individuals and small businesses have been shopping for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, show that in four months, more than 50,000 Rhode Islanders obtained health coverage through the exchange. It is not known how many had previously been among the state�s 124,000 uninsured residents.

Medicaid, the state-federal health plan for the poor, is seeing the biggest influx. State officials had originally projected enrolling 51,000 additional people over 18 months. But after only four months, Medicaid enrollment is already more than two-thirds that number.

The majority of the new Medicaid enrollees are poor, childless adults who are newly eligible for the taxpayer-funded coverage under the Affordable Care Act. For these people, the federal government will reimburse the state 100 percent of cost through 2016 and 90 percent after that. (For those who would have been eligible under the old rules, the state gets the usual 50 percent reimbursement.)

It is too early to tell how the influx of Medicaid patients will affect providers. Edward J. Quinlan, president of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, said he had not heard reports of spikes in emergency-room use.

Chuck Jones, president and CEO of Thundermist Health Center, which serves lower-income people in three communities, said that Thundermist had enrolled 2,236 patients in Medicaid, most of them childless adults. �We haven�t experienced the dramatic increase in demand that some expected with rollout of the ACA,� he said in an email Tuesday.

But Thundermist, he noted, has expanded in recent years to accommodate many people without insurance; as a result, many of the new Medicaid enrollees are existing patients who now have coverage. �Had we not grown to serve as many uninsured patients as we have, and had the rollout gone as more of a �big bang,� enrolling tens of thousands of people overnight, it could have been a different story,� Jones�s email said.

Among those buying private insurance, the market continues to be dominated by older people, with 53 percent age 45 and older. A quarter are 18 through 34.

Of the 16,512 enrollees, 2,426 have not yet paid their premiums.

As in the past, the vast majority are choosing plans offered by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island. Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island has enrolled only 545 individuals in its private health insurance plans.

About 1 in 8 enrollees in private plans are paying the full premium; the rest are getting federal subsidies to lower their costs.

Small employer participation remains tepid. Of the 30,000 businesses with 50 or fewer employees, 107 had enrolled as of Feb. 8 (with 420 covered employees plus 238 dependents). But small employers can sign up throughout the year, as their current plans come up for renewal.

Individuals have until March 31 to enroll in a health insurance plan and avoid a federal penalty.

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