The Department of Health and Human Services included hundreds of thousands of dental plans when reporting Obamacare enrollments in September, an undisclosed departure from routine practice that made it appear the administration had met its goal of 7 million signups in 2014.
Adding nearly 400,000 dental plans to the Affordable Care Act signups put the administration’s September number at 7.3 million instead of the more accurate 6.97 million, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
That’s slightly less than the Congressional Budget Office’s original projection, and it left Obamacare-backer Charles Gaba baffled. “I really don’t see what the point would be of being misleading about that number,” he told Bloomberg. “Even if it had been 6.9 million, I don’t see that as being a terrible thing.”
HHS had previously separately released enrollment numbers for medical insurance and dental plans. A May release showed enrollment totals at 8 million for health insurance and 1.1 million for dental coverage.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services and will update with their response.
HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell has set a 2015 target of 9.1 million enrollments.
