Nearly 2.8 million people signed up for health insurance coverage through the federal healthcare.gov website during the first 25 days of Obamacare’s open enrollment but the rate of sign-ups appears to have slowed, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The fourth week resulted in an increase of 504,181 sign-ups for plans, compared with the third week, when 798,829 people signed up for plans.
This was down from the 876,788 who signed up in the second week. In the first four days, 601,462 signed up.
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.
Democrats have accused the Trump administration of trying to sabotage Obamacare because it has cut the advertising and outreach budget and reduced the sign-up period to six weeks from three months. But enrollment is stronger than many believed it would be.
The number is still higher than last year. During the first 25 days, 2,781,260 signed up for coverage. After 26 days of open enrollment last year, 2,137,717 people had signed up for coverage.
Still, the shorter open enrollment period means they’ll need to accelerate sign-ups each day to match the 12.2 million who signed up by the end of last year’s open enrollment.
Within the total sign-ups up to this point, 2,062,975 customers were renewing customers who already have a plan through the exchange and 718,285 are new customers. The evaluation includes only sign-ups on healthcare.gov, which 39 states use, and therefore does not have information about the enrollment of other states that run their own exchange.
