The December surge provides a boost to President Barack Obama, whose fumbling of the October rollout of the insurance exchanges initially thwarted the high participation needed to spread the costs of his health-care expansion. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is supposed to offer private coverage to as many as 7 million people by the end of March.
"The new law is transformational for our entire health- care system and for millions of Americans who finally have health security," Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. health secretary, told reporters on a conference call.
In addition to those gaining private insurance, about 3.9 million others have been newly determined eligible for Medicaid plans for the poor, or for state children's programs. It's not known how many of those people actually enrolled, since that process must be completed with state governments in most cases.
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