Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Doomsday' Predictions Wrong, HHS Says As Enrollment Numbers Jump To 6.4M
About 6.4 million people have signed up for health insurance next year under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration said Wednesday, as people rushed to purchase plans regardless of Republican promises that the law will be repealed within months. The new sign-ups 鈥 an increase of 400,000 over a similar point last year 鈥 mean the health care coverage of millions of consumers could be imperiled by one of the first legislative actions of Donald J. Trump鈥檚 presidency. (Pear, 12/21)
"Obamacare" seems to be holding its own. The administration said Wednesday that 6.4 million people have enrolled for subsidized private coverage through HealthCare.gov, ahead of last year's pace. Despite rising premiums, dwindling insurers and the Republican vow to repeal President Barack Obama's health care law, about 400,000 more people signed up through Monday than for a comparable period in 2015, the Health and Human Services Department said. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 12/21)
Ms. Burwell touted the increase in sign-ups as an indication that interest in obtaining insurance through online exchanges is still strong. 鈥淪ome of the doomsday predictions about the marketplace are not bearing out,鈥 she said. (Hackman, 12/21)
About 4 million of those who signed up so far this year were renewing coverage, but Burwell said she expects more of the people who enroll聽ahead of the Jan. 31 deadline for 2017 coverage will be new customers. ACA critics charge the law has mainly attracted sicker people who have driven up the rates for others. (O'Donnell, 12/21)
The number of new customers is slightly behind last year's tally. Last year, about 2.4 million new consumers signed up for marketplace coverage from Nov. 1 through Dec. 19. (Williams, 12/21)
Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt said he thinks the enrollment surge has more to do with the affordability of the coverage than a sense of urgency driven by the looming threat to the ACA. The average shopper will be able to find coverage for less than $75 per month after premium subsidies. (Dickson, 12/21)
In releasing the latest Affordable Care Act sign-up figures, Burwell predicted that enrollment is on pace to reach the 13.8 million that HHS projected for this fourth sign-up season in the insurance marketplaces created through the law. (Goldstein, 12/21)
Burwell urged Republicans not to repeal the law given the people who rely on it for coverage. Officials noted that over 30,000 people have called the ObamaCare call center worried about coverage going away due to a repeal. (Sullivan, 12/21)
HHS plans to launch new advertising next month specifically targeted at new customers. Burwell also said that although 鈥渉eadwinds鈥 have increased 鈥 a nod to GOP promises to repeal the health care law 鈥 officials remained comfortable with their enrollment projections. (Pradhan, 12/21)
And for news on enrollment in the states聽鈥
The surge in sign-ups on the federal marketplace mirrors activity on several state-run Obamacare exchanges, according to figures obtained from states independently by Kaiser Health News. Minnesota, with more than 54,000 enrollees as of Monday, doubled the number of sign-ups it had at the same time last year. Colorado, Massachusetts and Washington had enrollment growth of at least 13 percent compared to a year ago. (Galewitz, 12/21)
Nearly 6.4 million Americans have signed up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act鈥檚 insurance exchanges at healthcare.gov, the Obama administration reported Wednesday, a surge in enrollment that included about 1.3 million people in Florida 鈥 more than any state using the federally run marketplace. Enrollment reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services captured sign-ups as of Monday, the deadline to choose coverage that begins on New Year鈥檚 Day, and reflected an increase of about 400,000 consumers over the same period for the prior year. (Chang, 12/21)
Despite the Affordable Care Act's uncertain fate, nearly 1.3 million Floridians have enrolled in coverage for 2017, up from about 1.1 million at this time last year for 2016 coverage, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Wednesday. (McGrory, 12/21)
Despite Obamacare's shaky future, more Illinois residents signed up for health insurance through the law's exchange this year than last, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday. This year, 247,818 people in Illinois signed up on the exchange by the Dec. 19 deadline to purchase coverage that would begin Jan. 1. That's compared with 232,750 who signed up for coverage last year, said Jonathan Gold, a department spokesman. This year's enrollment period was two days longer than last year. (Schencker, 12/21)
More than 160,000 Ohioans signed up for insurance coverage on the Affordable Care Act's marketplaces. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offered a snapshot on Tuesday of how many people are shopping for health insurance through Healthcare.gov, the official website for the federal government's Health Insurance Marketplace. (Washington, 12/21)
Despite the specter of repeal of the Affordable Care Act, enrollment in the health insurance exchange in Georgia shows a slight increase. Federal figures Wednesday showed 352,282 Georgians have enrolled in a 2017 health plan in the insurance exchange through Dec. 19. (Miller, 12/21)
More than 350,000 Georgians have signed up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act鈥檚 health insurance exchange so far, new federal data released Wednesday shows. Nationwide, 6.4 million people selected Obamacare plans from Nov. 1 through the Dec. 19 open enrollment deadline for coverage that starts the first of the year. (Williams, 12/21)
Florida is once again leading the nation with nearly 1.3 million people signing up for an Obamacare plan as of December 19, the latest聽federal data shows. Also following prior trends, the Miami and Orlando areas lead the state in the number of sign-ups, with 490,000 and 245,000 plan selections respectively. (Miller, 12/21)
The uninsured rate nationally and in Georgia has dropped since 2013 and under the Affordable Care Act more than 20 million people have gained coverage, according to a new report. But the number of adults who have gone a year without seeing a dentist has slightly increased, the report found. (Corwin, 12/21)
