The Obama administration Tuesday announced that roughly 2.5 million people had selected health plans ahead of the deadline to receive new coverage effective Jan. 1.
“I am pleased with the response to date on open enrollment, but we know we still have a lot of work to do between now and Feb. 15. People were ready to get covered and the vast majority are having a good consumer experience,” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. “As of Dec. 12, about 2.5 million consumers selected plans through the federal marketplace, and large numbers of new and renewing consumers continued to shop through the weekend.”
The 2.5 million figure did not include those who signed up for health coverage in the final days before Monday’s deadline for Jan. 1 coverage — or those who enrolled in a state marketplace.
Enrollment efforts have been much smoother in 2014 compared to the disastrous rollout of President Obama’s signature domestic initiative in 2013.
Roughly half of the 2.5 million consumers were new customers, while the rest were re-enrolling in plans, administration officials said.
Health officials will now begin automatically re-enrolling consumers who did not return to the marketplaces. Those individuals, however, could be surprised by rate increases in 2015, having passed on the chance to shop for a cheaper plan.
The Obama administration has been on the defensive in recent weeks for 2014 enrollment figures after it was revealed they padded the figures by including roughly 400,000 dental plans in the final count. The administration said the overall enrollment total was closer to 6.7 million.
Consumers have until Feb. 15 to select a health plan for 2015.
