Here are seven questions that remain about the health care law:
1. How many young and healthy people signed up?
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According to the latest figures, from March 11, adults aged 18-34 made up about 27 percent of enrollees on healthcare.gov in January and February, short of the 40 percent the administration believes are needed to keep premiums stable.
2. How many have paid their premiums?
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that insurers claim between 80 and 90 percent of those who signed up for plans have paid.
3. How many enrollees are subsidized by the government?
The Kaiser Family Foundation calculated that as of March 1, when 4.2 million had signed up for coverage, 3.5 million people — 83 percent of enrollees — qualified for a total of about $10 billion in annual premium subsidies, an average of about $2,890 per person.
4. How many of the nation’s 30 million uninsured are now covered?
As of March 31, about 6.5 million of those who were previously uninsured have coverage if they paid their premiums, according to estimates. This number includes up to 2 million new Medicaid enrollees. Those figures, though, are below Congressional Budget Office projections.
5. How many who lost coverage because of Obamacare regulations signed up for new policies?
In the face of Obama’s broken promise that consumers could keep current plans, the administration granted an extension allowing insurers to retain those policies into 2017. Five million have signed up for new plans, according to a RAND Corporation estimate, but it is unknown how many of those were on healthcare.gov.
6. How much will health insurance premiums go up?
Insurers have privately told industry analysts the exchanges so far are populated by older, sicker and mostly female enrollees who are more expensive to cover. That will drive up the cost of premiums next fall by as much as 24 percent, some predict.
7. Will taxpayers have to bail out insurers?
Insurance companies are negotiating with the White House, which is considering extending a taxpayer-backed bailout in exchange for insurers keeping premiums from skyrocketing.
Susan Ferrechio, Chief Congressional Correspondent
