During the first 12 days of Obamacare’s open enrollment, nearly 1.5 million people signed up for health insurance coverage through the federal healthcare.gov website, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Last November, about 1 million people signed up for coverage over 12 days, which means the current pace of sign-ups is faster than under the last year of the Obama administration.
Democrats have accused the Trump administration of trying to sabotage Obamacare because it has cut the budget for navigators and advertisements on open enrollment in addition to reducing the sign-up period. But enrollment is stronger than many believed it would be.
The second week resulted in 876,788 people signing up for plans, while the first four days resulted in 601,462 sign-ups.
Americans who don’t get coverage through a job or through a government program like Medicaid have until Dec. 15 to sign up through the federal government, which for most enrollees is subsidized through tax credits paid for by the federal government.
Within the total sign-ups up to this point, 1,132,531 customers were renewing customers who already have a plan through the exchange and 345,719 are new customers. The evaluation includes only sign-ups on healthcare.gov, which 39 states use, and therefore does not have information about the other states that run their own exchanges.
