The Obama administration said late Tuesday that 4 million Americans have now selected a private health plan under Obamacare.
Although it will not release official enrollment figures for February until mid-March, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) touted the milestone in a blog post.
“Our outreach efforts are in full force with community partners and local officials participating in hundreds of events each week and enrollment assisters are helping more and more people enroll in coverage,” CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner wrote. “Consumers are shopping and enrolling in plans on HealthCare.gov every day; system error rates are low and response times are consistently less than half a second.”
After an extremely rocky rollout in October, the White House is racing to sign up uninsured persons, particularly healthier young adults, before the health care law’s initial open-enrollment period ends March 31.
The administration says there is no magic to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimated enrollment target of 6 million people — revised downward from 7 million after the federal Obamacare website had problems after its Oct. 1 launch — but the number is widely seen as a key barometer of whether Americans are buying into President Obama’s signature law.
The report can be found at https://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/blog/2014/02/marketplace-enrollment-hits-4-million.html.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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