The Department of Health and Human Services Monday projected that between 9 and 9.9 million people would enroll in Obamacare plans next year, well short of the 13 million predicted by the independent Congressional Budget Office.
HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced the figures at an event hosted by the Center for American Progress, an admission that will open up the administration to fresh criticism over the health marketplaces.
“We want it be accurate; we want it to be analytically based,” Burwell said, when asked if the administration was “moving the goalposts” in defining Obamacare success.
The second round of open enrollment in Obamacare begins Saturday. President Obama is hoping that his team is better prepared this time around, as the bungled rollout of Obamacare last October badly damaged his approval ratings.
Burwell also said that 7.1 million people were enrolled in Obamacare plans as of mid-October. The decrease of roughly one million customers since the end of open enrollment in the spring was attributed to people not paying for their plans and more than 100,000 individuals who could not provide citizenship information.
The president continues to insist that the public, including Republicans, will eventually embrace his signature domestic achievement.
The issue was hardly the centerpiece of the 2014 midterms, in which Republicans regained control of the Senate, but will certainly be re-litigated heading into the battle for the White House in 2016.
