A total of 11.8 million individuals selected a health plan on the ACA's individual marketplace for 2018, according to a report from the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy.
For its analysis, NASHP reviewed plan selection data from the nation's state-based and federal marketplaces.
Here are three things to know from the report.
1. Plan selection for 2018 fell 3.7 percent on the individual marketplaces compared to the 12.2 million Americans who signed up for coverage in 2017.
2. States operating their own marketplace and states using the federal platform saw more plan selections than states using the federally facilitated marketplace. Specifically, plan selections in the 17 states using a state-based exchange or a state-based marketplace using the federal platform increased slightly in 2018 over 2017. In comparison, the 34 states using the federally facilitated marketplace saw plan selections fall by 5.3 percent in 2018 compared to 2017.
3. Marketplace leaders pointed to several reasons for the slight increase in plan selections on state-based marketplaces, such as ''larger tax subsidies that lowered costs for millions of Americans; effective communication and targeted outreach to key populations; and heightened news coverage and improved enrollment operations.'' NASHP noted these state-based efforts offset uncertainty at the federal level, shorter enrollment timeframes and premium increases.