The White House announced Tuesday that more than 7 million Americans have signed up for health plans under the Affordable Care Act, marking a sharp turnaround for a federal campaign to sell the nation on new health insurance from disastrous beginnings six months ago.
The tally — 7.04 million — is based on the number of people who enrolled in health plans through the new federal insurance marketplace operating in three dozen states the deadline of midnight on Monday, plus the enrollments from 14 state-run marketplaces as of March 30.
(Lucy Nicholson/ Reuters ) - Juan Ortiz, 67, left, and his eighteen-month-old grandson Joshua Lopez wait in line at a health insurance enrollment event in Commerce, Calif.
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A look back at every Affordable Care Act deadline that was extended by the Obama administration.
Taken together, the enrollment reflects a late rush of consumers, seeking coverage as the March 31 deadline approached, lifted the enrollment beyond the level that federal officials have believed likely in recent months.
“As of midnight last night, I think it would be safe to say we surpassed everyone’s expectations, at least everyone’s in this room,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.
He said that high enrollment was due, in part, to the intensive public campaign by the Obama administration and its allies to persuade the public to sign up. But, Carney added, “most of all it’s the fact that the American people, despite the negative advertising, despite the obstacles we put in their way with the crummy rollout, made it clear that they wanted this product.”
Congressional budget analysts had long forecast that 7 million people would get coverage this year through new federal and state insurance marketplaces created by the 2010 health-care law during a sign-up period from Oct. 1 to March 31. And the Obama administration embraced that estimate.
But the budget analysts’ forecast was downgraded to 6 million in February, taking into account massive computer problems with HealthCare.gov, the online federal marketplace, that frustrated many consumers who tried to shop for and buy health plans during much of the fall.
The unexpectedly large number of enrollees, rushed out hours after the six-month enrollment window closed at midnight Monday, means that the marketplaces proved more popular in their final days than anyone expected.
Tuesday morning, federal health officials were eager to compile an official tally, including figures from the final days of enrollment in 14 separate state-run insurance exchanges as well as the total from the federal marketplace operating in three dozen states, according to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity about work going on behind the scenes. Administration officials were trying to have a firm figure to announce later in the day, although the timing of such an announcement remains uncertain.
The extent of the new insurance’s popularity carries significant political implications for a law that has been a source of deep partisan division ever since it was enacted four years ago. The Obama administration and its allies have predicted that the American public would be attracted to health plans — and the law that created them — once they actually were given an opportunity to gain the insurance. Republicans have predicted that the law is fatally flawed and would be spurned.
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