Thursday, March 27, 2014

Obamacare Enrollment Surges Past 6 Million


Astrid Riecken for the Washington Post

(People line up in Silver Spring, Maryland, to enroll in the State's ACA health insurance exchange.)

This is good, and somewhat expected, news:
(Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday that more than 6 million people have now signed up for private insurance plans under President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law known as Obamacare, reflecting a surge in enrollments days before the March 31 deadline. 
Ten days ago, the administration had pegged enrollment at more than 5 million people, and enlisted celebrities and top government officials to try to convince more uninsured people - particularly the young and healthy - to sign up. 
The last-minute boost has exceeded the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's estimate that 6 million people would sign up in the program's first year, down from earlier expectations of 7 million enrollees because of problems with websites used for shopping for insurance.
Over a million new enrollees in the past 10 days, the late surge comporting with Massachusetts' experience with Romneycare =snicker= enrollment history.  The 6 million does not include people who have enrolled in expanded Medicaid in many States.   Counting people queuing both on-line and in person to sign up, and with a time extension for enrollment under certain circumstances, it's quite possible ACA enrollments will hit the 7 million mark by mid-April.

Here in Maryland, as is being reported in other States, activity at Affordable Care Act web sites and walk-in locations is surging.  By the time the next open enrollment period is upon us (November), site bugs will mostly be a bad memory.

UPDATE:  The White House is engaging in a little Twitter humor at the expense of all the knuckledragging Republicans who mocked the early enrollment numbers.

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