The Obama administration has announced that the number of people who have signed up for health care via the government’s revamped website has surpassed the one million mark.
Experts predict that when you take into account state-run markets the number of people who have enrolled in new private health insurance plans under the health law is at around 2 million.
The Obama administration aimed for a total enrollment of 3.3 million by the end of the year. However this could not be met due to technical problems with people being unable to enroll.
By March 31 the government aims to have at least 7 people enrolled.
The CEO of Avalere Health, a market analysis firm, Dan Mendelson, said that December has been an impressive month for the administration:
“It looks like current enrollment is around 2 million despite all the issues. It was a very impressive showing for December.”
There was a surge in the number of people signing up a few days before Christmas to meet the deadline to start in January.
A blog post by the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Marilyn Tavenner, said the following:
“We experienced a welcome surge in enrollment as millions of Americans seek access to affordable health care coverage.”
The US government’s main objective is to ensure that people continue signing up and avoid any future enrollment problems.
Robert Laszewski, a consultant in the insurance industry, said:
“They’ve got the front end of the system working really well. Now we can move on to the next question: Do people really want to buy this?”
The White House reports that the error rate has gone down significantly.
However, the website problems would be nothing compared to the complaints of people who have paid their premiums ending up at the emergency room only find that there is no record of their coverage.