The Obama administration announced Tuesday that 4 million Americans have signed up for health insurance through the new health care law’s insurance exchanges, with just five weeks remaining until the end of the enrollment period.
While a marked improvement from the turbulent beginning of the enrollment period last year, the figure is a far cry from the 7 million enrollees that the White House had been hoping to have in place by the end of next month. Administration officials have backed away from that target in recent weeks.
The White House is also behind on its targets for the share of young and healthy enrollees in the exchanges. Figures through the end of January put that share at just 25 percent, as opposed to the nearly 40 percent the Obama administration had hoped for. The success of the law depends on younger enrollees signing up to keep premiums broadly affordable for sicker and elderly enrollees.
President Obama welcomed the news, in a speech to grassroots political group Organizing For Action. “We now have more than 4 million Americans who have signed up for quality, affordably health insurance. 4 million people have already signed up because of you. 4 million.”
The latest update from the Department of Health and Human Services does not update the demographic figures.
The full HHS blogpost is below:
HHS Blog Post: Another Significant Milestone: Marketplace Enrollment Hits 4 Million
By Marilyn Tavenner, Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesAs we head into the last five weeks of this historic open enrollment period, millions of Americans are taking advantage of the new choices they now have to access affordable, quality health care thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The most recent data indicate that approximately 4 million people have now signed up for a private health insurance plan through the Federal and State-based Marketplaces since October 1. A full enrollment report for February will be released in mid-March.
With individuals and families enrolling in coverage every day, we continue to see strong demand nationwide from consumers who want access to quality, affordable coverage. Our outreach efforts are in full force with community partners and local officials participating in hundreds of events each week and enrollment assistors are helping more and more people enroll in coverage. Consumers are shopping and enrolling in plans on HealthCare.gov every day; system error rates are low and response times are consistently less than half a second. Our call center has handled more than 12 million calls so far and is open 24/7 to assist consumers in English, Spanish and more than 150 languages. In person assistance is available nationwide. You can find local help at https://localhelp.healthcare.gov/.
Check out just some of the stories of success so far and spread the news to your friends and family. Open enrollment ends March 31.