Obamacare signups last week on healthcare.gov increased by only three percent compared to the week before, with the open enrollment deadline coming this Sunday.
The Obama administration reported Wednesday that 7.75 million consumers selected a healthcare plan or were automatically re-enrolled through healthcare.gov as of Feb. 6, a slight boost from the 7.5 million announced last week. The figure only lists enrollments from 37 states that use healthcare.gov and not states that maintain their own insurance markets.
It remains doubtful whether the administration can meet the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of 12 million enrollees this year. However, administration officials said they saw a deluge of interest last week and expect that momentum to continue right up to Sunday.
Traffic to healthcare.gov increased 58 percent compared to the week before, and calls to help line centers also increased by more than a third week to week, said Andy Slavitt, deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, on a Wednesday call with reporters.
Slavitt also touted week-to-week increases in signups in several southern states. Louisiana signups grew six percent, with 157,900 signups, and Mississippi signups grew five percent with 91,723. Texas grew five percent with 1,015,772, and South Carolina also increased five percent, for a total of 180,373.
Slavitt attributed the increases to positive word of mouth.
The administration continues to be mum on whether Americans would be able to sign up after the Feb. 15 deadline. Officials reiterated that if someone started an application but didn’t finish it by Sunday, then that person will get an extension, but didn’t say how long.
“I think we will work down the queue, however long it takes, to get everybody through the queue,” said Slavitt.
Slavitt also noted that roughly 200,000 enrollees will lose coverage by the end of the month because of complications with their immigration status.
