MNsure touts health plan sign-ups, says it's on track to meet goal

MNsure ended 2014 with 31,159 people enrolling in private health insurance and officials with the insurance exchange say they're on track to meet their goal of enrolling at least 67,000 people in commercial plans this year.

The agency needs to reach that goal to balance its budget. Several weeks remain to sign up people through MNsure ahead of the final Feb. 15 deadline to sign up for coverage or face a tax penalty.

"We're halfway through the MNsure open enrollment period and we're about halfway to our overall enrollment number," MNsure spokesman Joe Campbell said. "We feel really good about that and where we are and we look forward to working like crazy for the next six weeks to bring as many people into MNsure as possible."

Nearly 21,000 of those who signed up for private 2015 health plans are new to the exchange, MNsure reported Monday.

MNsure also said it enrolled 11,152 in MinnesotaCare and 26,540 in Medical Assistance, two public programs targeted at low-income Minnesotans, and that the exchange's average call center wait time fell below six minutes in December, down from more than an hour during December 2013.

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