A story in the Seattle Times over the weekend looked at the budget of the Washington health benefit exchange (the Healthplanfinder):

Washington and the 13 other states running their own health-insurance marketplaces all had federal grants to pay for startup costs. Now the Washington Health Benefit Exchange will have to transition from federal grants totaling almost $150 million in 2014 to state dollars allocated by the Legislature of $40 million in 2015.

A very preliminary budget analysis by exchange officials makes some suggestions about how that might work: by putting zero dollars in marketing and advertising, spending nothing for computer and software upgrades, and slashing budgets for administrative and building needs. . . .

That projected budget cut isn’t the only financial challenge for the exchange going forward. Where the $40 million is expected to come from may also pose a problem.

The Legislature voted last year to pass along the proceeds of an existing 2 percent state tax on health-insurance policy sales through the exchange. That would add up to $40 million, but only if sales projections are met.

The exchange is already behind its goals for getting people signed up for insurance, raising questions as to how it can meet its projections in 2015 without a marketing and advertising budget.

The Washington exchange set a goal of selling private insurance to 280,000 people by Jan. 1, 2015.

The first goal called for 130,000 private policies sold by last month.

Today the exchange released enrollment numbers through Feb. 6. The new numbers show that a total of 90,723 qualified (private) health plans (QHP) have been sold through the exchange since Oct. 1.

Enrollments by those newly eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act’s expansion total 184,783 (these enrollments are funded under the enhanced federal match). Enrollments by those who were previously eligible for Medicaid under the old eligibility rules but had not previously enrolled total 91,840 (these are funded under the regular federal match). An additional 280,766 have re-applied for Medicaid through the exchange.