Obamacare Sign-Ups Outpace Last Year as 1 Million Pick Plans

Katherine Doherty
November 16, 2016 — 7:29 AM PST
Updated on November 16, 2016 — 7:47 AM PST


A man walks out of the UniVista Insurance company office after shopping for a health plan under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, on Dec. 15, 2015 in Miami, Florida.

Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

More than 1 million people selected insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act in the first two weeks of sign-ups, outpacing last year, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a report Wednesday.

From Nov. 1, when the sign-up markets opened, to Nov. 12, about 246,433 new consumers chose an Obamacare plan for next year, and 761,785 renewed their existing coverage. That amounts to about 53,000 more plans than were selected during the first 12 days of open enrollment last, year, the government said.

This year’s sign-up process opened in the waning days of the U.S. presidential election and the surprise election of Donald Trump, who has promised to repeal and replace or amend the law.

“The American people are demonstrating how much they continue to want and need the coverage the marketplace offers,” Sylvia Burwell, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement. Enrollment figures will be released every two weeks up until Dec. 15, the deadline to sign up for coverage that starts on Jan. 1, the U.S. said.

The sign-up figures are only for the 39 states where the federal government runs enrollment, and doesn’t include states that have opted to build their own enrollment systems.

Enrollment can vary week to week, and in past years there has typically been a surge of sign-ups near the deadline.

 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...ion-pick-plans