It looks like the Obama administration is going to surpass the enrollment goals it set for the current sign-up period for plans on the state and federal marketplace exchanges.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that 2.83 million people have enrolled in plans, including 1 million new consumers. The agency's goal was to enroll 900,000 new customers before Dec. 15, the deadline for those who want coverage starting Jan. 1.
"As expected, consumer interest in health coverage is increasing as we approach the December 15 deadline with over 800,000 people selecting plans during the fifth week of Open Enrollment," said the agency in a statement.
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The goal may have been conservative to begin with, but it's at the very least an encouraging sign that new enrollment has not been stopped dead in its tracks because of some of the issues that have bedeviled the law recently. The most recent bad news has focused on co-ops that were forced to close and UnitedHealthCare — the largest for-profit insurer in the country — announcing it may soon withdraw from the exchanges.
While those challenges to the law have provided fodder for pundits, the more relevant challenges on the ground are probably the stories people hear from friends and relatives who have not received their promised subsidies due to bureaucratic complications, or who believe the high-deductible plans they're purchasing hardly amount to insurance at all.
And then there are people — largely young and healthy — who have forgone purchasing insurance for a variety of reasons, including lack of awareness or a belief that they don't need it and that the penalty that they'll pay for not having it is cheaper and less of a hassle than signing up.
In trying to move this last group onto insurance, the federal government is wielding a bigger stick than it has during the first two years of the PPACA. It recently announced that penalties for not having insurance will cost more than the price of many exchange plans. They will rise to an average of $969, up from $661 this past year.
In a statement, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell applauded the continued progress of the law:
"While we have more work to do, more than 1 million new consumers have signed up for affordable quality coverage through HealthCare.gov. And the average returning Marketplace consumer who has shopped and chosen a new plan will pay less in premiums after their tax credits this year than they were paying last year.
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