Obamacare enrollment numbers are higher than they were during the last signup season despite a sluggish January, with just days before the current enrollment period expires, Obama administration officials said Thursday.
According to the most recent figures, more than 11.6 million people around the country have selected plans through the new insurance marketplaces, although not all of them have actually paid their first month’s premium. Of those enrollees, 8.9 million used the federal website, healthcare.gov, and the rest used state-run marketplaces.
The vast majority of enrollments took place in November and December, followed by a slow January which saw just about 300,000 new enrollees on healthcare.gov.
But the 8.9 million healthcare.gov enrollees are still more than the 7.7 million Americans who bought plans on the federal website at the same point during last year’s open enrollment, officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told reporters.
“I think the great news so far for us is we had a really terrific December,” said CMS acting administrator Andy Slavitt.
Officials said they’re planning a final push over the weekend before enrollment ends Sunday at midnight. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell plans to visit Florida and Texas, two states with many remaining uninsured people, while marketplace CEO Kevin Counihan said he’ll stop in Oklahoma.
Regardless of what the final enrollment totals are, they’ll likely be lower than what the Congressional Budget Office had previously estimated. The administration has acknowledged the difficulty in convincing the remaining uninsured people to buy health coverage, which some don’t want or feel is too expensive.
Counihan said that over the weekend, the government will be running television ads in eight markets where there’s a high uninsured rate. He also announced a new partnership with Lyft, an upstart driving service that competes with Uber.
And on Wednesday, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama did more than two dozen interviews with local media promoting the marketplace coverage and subsidies available to low-income Americans.
Yet a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released Thursday suggested that majorities of the uninsured aren’t aware of the upcoming deadline and haven’t taken steps to find out whether they qualify to buy a plan on the exchanges or collect federal subsidies to help pay for it. While recognizing the ongoing challenges, officials said Thursday they’re staying optimistic.
“I think we’ve all recognized this is a multi-year implementation [of the marketplaces], so where we are right now with respect to awareness, this is not a surprise to anybody,” Counihan said. “I think we’re seeing good enrollment, certainly higher than many thought it would be, since they all said we’re going to have to get the high hanging fruit this year.”
Officials said that according to their latest calculations, 14 states have at least 20 percent more enrollees than at the same time last year. They also said they’re seeing a surge of pre-deadline interest, with 50 percent more traffic to healthcare.gov than at the same time last week.
“I think we’re all feeling good this year,” Counihan said. “We’re not running a victory lap, but I think we’re feeling good.”
