Healthcare.gov saw 371,676 people select health insurance plans during the first three days of open enrollment, according to data provided Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The agency typically releases weekly data on enrollment, but because each week is measured from Sunday through Saturday, the latest-available data only takes into account Thursday, Nov. 1 â the day open enrollment started â to Sunday, Nov. 4.
Last year, more than 600,000 people signed up for plans during the first four days of enrollment. Comparisons are inexact, in part due to national attention on the midterm elections, but enrollment appears to be slightly behind last year.
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. It has also allowed the sale of cheaper plans that fall outside of Obamacare’s rules by refusing patients with chronic illnesses and omitting coverage for maternity care, prescription drugs, and mental health.
The latest figures indicate that 89,282 people who shopped on the site were new customers, while the rest were returning customers. More than 1.5 million people visited the site, and 293,664 were assisted at the call centers.
The healthcare.gov site was created under Obamacare to allow certain customers who don’t get health insurance through a job or through a government program, such as Medicare, to sign up for private coverage that the federal government helps them pay for. It allows people to compare plans and see what doctors, hospitals, and drugs would be covered.
Open enrollment will run until Dec. 15, and at that point people who are already in the system but haven’t changed their health insurance will either be re-enrolled or placed into a new plan automatically.
