Data for
Broker Academy
December 2023
Why data?
Considering the Broker Academy’s purpose of getting more people from underserved communities covered, these maps and graphs show data on:
Where AHCT-certified brokers are located, by county;
How brokers are distributed based on:
The overall population
The Non-White or Hispanic population
The uninsured population
The un-brokered population; and
Who’s using brokers, by race/ethnicity
Answers from the data will help inform
how many students should be recruited, and from where,
where classes should be held in how many locations,
the budget that’s needed, and
which funders to pursue.
Data comes from TOA's updated (but not yet published) figures for the AHCT Health Disparities Dashboard, TOA data on the enrolled population for Fiscal Year 2023, and TOA data on brokers enrolled as of 11/27/23 and 12/5/23, as shown in the online Enrollment Dashboard.
Spoiler Alert!
If we want brokers to be distributed in proportion to: Then we should add brokers in:
Overall population Windham
The Non-White or Hispanic population Fairfield
The uninsured population Windham
The unbrokered population Litchfield
The unbrokered Non-White or Hispanic population Fairfield
All of the above Windham & Fairfield
Non-White or Hispanic customers used brokers to a greater degree than White customers do In every county but New London. The highest rate of broker use is among customers of unknown race or ethnicity. Jump to data.
We should consider:
Asking brokers to provide demographic information, just as we do for customers and Broker Academy students, so we can better assess our impact, and
Setting a company goal of boosting broker use, either by percent or absolute number of customers.
1. Where are our brokers located?
2. How are brokers distributed compared to the population?
Here we see that the ratio of residents to brokers ranges from 4,289 residents for every broker in Tolland County to 12,945 residents for every broker in Windham County-- a 300% difference.
That might be good for brokers in counties on the right side of the chart, since they have less competition for business, but not as good for the residents who have fewer brokers to serve them.
3. Distribution of Brokers Compared to the Population
Here's another way of looking at the same data. The chart below shows the share of all brokers in each county compared to the share of the state's population in each county. The yellow bar shows the gap between the two numbers. This chart lets us see that brokers are over-represented to the greatest degree in Hartford County, and to a lesser degree in Tolland and Middlesex Counties, compared to their population. Brokers are under-represented to the greatest degree in Fairfield County.
4. How many Non-White or Hispanic residents are there per broker?
Given the Broker Academy’s focus on non-White or Hispanic populations, let’s also look at those populations per broker. Tolland County has the lowest, and Fairfield County has the highest, ratio of NWH residents per broker.
5. Where are the uninsured?
What about the uninsured population? This map shows the uninsured population per broker, based on the updated estimates for our Health Equity Dashboard (which uses US Census figures).
Looking at these numbers on a per broker basis shows that the highest numbers of uninsured people per broker are in Windham and New London Counties, suggesting that more brokers there could be useful to reduce the size of the uninsured population. Brokers are also under-represented in Windham and New London Counties relative to the overall population (section 2, above).
6. Who's using brokers?
Non-White or Hispanic customers used brokers to a greater degree than White customers do In every county but New London. The highest rate of broker use is among customers of unknown race or ethnicity. The yellow bar shows how much more Non-White QHP customers use brokers compared to White QHP customers. These trends existed in prior years too.
But for all of FY 2023, only 38% of customers were brokered, meaning the majority were not… and perhaps didn't choose the best plans for their circumstances or left money on the table. Brokers still have plenty of business opportunities. Should we set a company goal for broker use?
7. How many unbrokered customers are there, per broker?
LEFT: Litchfield, Windham, and Fairfield Counties have the most unbrokered customers per broker (and greater need for brokers), as shown by the orange bars. Tolland, Hartford and New Haven Counties have the lowest need for brokers by this measure.
RIGHT: Fairfield, New Haven, and Litchfield Counties have the most unbrokered Non-White or Hispanic customers per broker, based on FY 2023 data.
Brokers have the best business opportunities among unbrokered customers in the counties on the right, but customers in those places may have a harder time finding a broker.
8. What are the demographics of our broker population?
We know the race/ethnicity of the brokers we’ve added to our broker population because we collect demographics info from Broker Academy students.
But we haven’t collected demographics from the rest of our brokers, so we can’t say what the racial balance of AHCT-certified brokers is, how much the Broker Academy improved it, or where the racial disparities in brokers are greatest.
Requesting demographic info from brokers, along with the data on the previous slides, would help us be more strategic about where we recruit new brokers from.
Takeaways
If we want brokers to be distributed in proportion to: Then we should add brokers in:
Overall population Windham
The Non-White or Hispanic Population Fairfield
The uninsured population Windham
The unbrokered population Litchfield
The unbrokered Non-White or Hispanic population Fairfield
All of the above, equally weighted Fairfield and Windham, equally ranked
We should also consider:
Asking brokers to provide demographic information, just as we do for customers and Broker Academy students, and
Setting a company goal of boosting broker use, either by percent or absolute number of customers.
This chart shows each county's rank per broker for overall population, NWH population, uninsured population, unbrokered population, unbrokered NWH population, and each county's average ranking (darkest bar).
If each of those factors is equally important, then Windham and Fairfield Counties show the greatest need for brokers; Tolland, Middlesex and Hartford Counties show the least need; and New Haven, New London, and Litchfield Counties show moderate need.
🤔 In spite of Fairfield County's need for brokers by these measures, its Non-White or Hispanic customers are already using brokers more than in other counties. In FY 2023 Fairfield County had the highest percentage of Non-White or Hispanic customers who are brokered (43.9%), whereas 33.8% of White customers in Fairfield County were brokered.