It looks like the Obama administration couldn’t have set a more perfect Obamacare enrollment goal.
Its target of 9 million to 9.9 million people — announced by the Department of Health and Human Services back in November — was low enough to be surpassed by Feb. 15 but not so low that it appeared the administration lacked confidence in its ability to convince people to sign up.
The regular enrollment season ended on midnight Monday, although people still have until Sunday to complete their applications if they simply attest to being held up by wait times or technical difficulties.
Officials haven’t yet announced final enrollment numbers, but as of Wednesday about 10 million had signed up for health coverage on either healthcare.gov or one of the 14 state-run exchanges, the administration reported. That includes both new enrollees and people who also signed up last year.
That total is less than the 12 million people that Congress’ official scorekeeper, the Congressional Budget Office, estimated would sign up for health coverage this year. In January, the CBO scaled back that number from the 13 million it originally projected.
When enrollment began last fall, officials were careful to tamp down any expectations that they’d reach those estimates over the course of the sign-up season. The Obama administration advised the public to expect no more than 9.9 million people to sign up this year.
Setting that lower benchmark ensured the administration wouldn’t find itself having to explain why signups fell short of projections as it was trying hard to ensure healthcare.gov was a success this year. Instead, officials kept the focus on urging enrollment among Americans, especially young people.
In a goofy video reminiscent of his “Between Two Ferns” appearance last year, President Obama urged signups in a Buzzfeed clip where he pretends to rehearse his enrollment speech in a mirror, tries to dip cookies in a glass of milk and sketches First Lady Michelle Obama. The video was posted Thursday.
Before this year’s sign-up season, about 13 percent of Americans remained uninsured. Before the 2010 health care law was passed, nearly 51 million Americans — about 16.5 percent of the population — lacked health coverage.
While enrollment isn’t likely to hit the CBO projections, signups went much better this year compared to the 2014 enrollment season, in which healthcare.gov initially flopped and took weeks to become usable for most visitors.
About 8 million people ended up enrolling by the end of last year’s signup period — which lasted six months compared to this year’s three-month enrollment window — but most of those came in at the tail end, after the website was finally working better.
Officials said Monday morning that shoppers have until Sunday to finish their applications if they say they faced certain barriers to completing it — like technical issues or long waiting times.
“For those consumers who were unable to complete their enrollment because of longer-than-normal wait times at the call center in the last three days or because of a technical issue such as being unable to submit an application because their income could not be verified, we will provide them with a time-limited special enrollment period for March 1 coverage,” said Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The state-run insurance exchanges may choose their own grace periods. For example, New York’s exchange, dubbed NY State of Health, is giving people until February 28 to finish their applications. Minnesota announced its exchange will hold a special enrollment period through Friday.
