knectAs health exchanges launched October 1 including the federally-run exchange and other state-based exchanges, we need to celebrate that Kentucky’s exchange, kynect, has been highlighted as a unique success story. As a reminder, health exchanges are online marketplaces where individuals and small businesses can compare insurance plans and enroll in the health coverage that best fits their needs. Some states, including Kentucky, created state-run exchanges, while many states deferred to the exchange set up by the federal government.

From the Wall Street Journal: “While Kentucky’s health-insurance exchange experienced some glitches when it launched Tuesday, it seemed to perform better than many of its peers.” National experts have placed Kentucky at the top of the list for state-run exchanges and credit kynect’s success to a fairly simple web site design, involving the right people from different agencies and departments and extensive consumer testing before the site launched.

Here are some recent enrollment and website numbers – as of 9:00 a.m. Eastern on October 14:

  • 225,174 unique visitors to kynect.ky.gov; viewing 4,711,796 webpages.
  • 200,698 people conducted prescreenings to determine qualifications for subsidies, discounts or programs like Medicaid.
  • 33,329 applications for health care coverage have been started; 21,931 are completed.
  • 10,990 individuals and/or families are enrolled in new affordable health care coverage.
  • 287 small businesses have started applications for health insurance for employees.
  • 47,029 calls managed by kynect contact center at 1-855-4kynect (1-855-459-6328).

This is great news for Kentucky. The website is working and individuals and families are enrolling  in the health insurance they need to access affordable health care. We congratulate the Governor, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the Department of Insurance, and specifically the Office of the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange for their hard work to ensure that kynect was ready for launch on time. We also thank them for their continuing work to correct system glitches and to get the word out to Kentuckians. In addition, we appreciate the vast involvement of stakeholders the state included in the exchange planning process including advocates, consumers, health care providers, and many others.

To find out what type of insurance your family is eligible for, visit kynect.ky.gov or call 1-855-4kynect.