Obamacare looks to be pretty popular in Miami and Atlanta, as the two cities have signed up nearly 1 million people combined.
The Obama administration announced signups for Obamacare in local markets using healthcare.gov, which covers about 38 states. The figures don’t represent states such as California that run their own insurance exchanges.
The top five cities are:
Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, 588,183 signups
Atlanta, 394,458
Dallas/Ft. Worth, 333,105
Houston, 298,346
Chicago, 278,687
Overall, about 74,239 people selected plans for Obamacare for the week of Jan. 3 to Jan. 9 on healthcare.gov. The signups are down from the previous week, which saw 83,297 people choose a plan on the federally run website.
Last week, the administration announced about 11 million people have signed up overall, including those who enrolled on healthcare.gov and various state-run insurance exchanges.
Officials set a goal of having about 10 million people sign up and pay for Obamacare coverage by the end of this year.
Open enrollment ends Jan. 31, and the administration signaled on Monday that it would not have as many special enrollment periods for people to sign up throughout the year.
The crackdown on special enrollment is to ensure that someone doesn’t just sign up for Obamacare when he or she gets sick and drop coverage when better, which can drive up premiums.
Which special enrollment periods will be cut remains in doubt, but advocates said Wednesday that major special enrollment categories are likely to remain, such as enrollment periods for those who lose their job or move.
“There are 33 special enrollment categories,” said Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, the state-run Obamacare insurance exchange, during a call with reporters. “CMS is looking at narrowing some of those that are infrequently used and inappropriately used.”
