According to President Obama’s recent announcement, the marketplaces have seen 6 million applications.
At the close of last week, President Obama announced that there had already been almost 6 million enrollments in the federal health exchanges in order to purchase coverage through health plans that would be effective in 2016.
Officials from the Obama administration believe that this trend is a true indicator of the success of the Affordable Care Act.
Analysts had expressed some worry over increased deductibles and premiums. They were concerned that this might present a barrier to people who were looking to enroll in the health insurance exchanges for the first time. That said, the Obama administration officials said that of the nearly 6 million people who had enrolled by December 17, there were 2.4 million people who were first time enrollees. They also pointed out that the federal insurance marketplace saw about one third more people enrolling before the coverage deadline than was the case last year.
President Obama explained that “New customers are up one-third over last year,” in the federal health insurance exchanges.
The president added “And the more who sign up, the stronger the system becomes—and that’s good news for every American who no longer has to worry about being just one illness or accident away from financial hardship.” The administration expressed that it believes that by the end of 2016 there will likely be about 10 million people who are enrolled and who have paid for their health insurance coverage. In fact, the administration feels strongly enough about that prediction that they feel that it will not only be met but that it will likely be exceeded.
The reason is that there is another deadline on January 31 that will give people an additional opportunity to purchase coverage for the remainder of the year. Moreover, the figure of nearly six million people that was quoted by the president doesn’t include the consumers who already have coverage this year and whose health plans will be automatically renewed for 2016. Moreover, this also doesn’t include the number of people who enrolled in state-run insurance exchanges, instead of the federal site.
The federal health insurance exchange is currently serving residents of 38 states. At the moment, the enrollment trends remain lower than early forecasts created at the same time as the Affordable Care Act. Back then, it was believed that by 2016, there would be over 20 million people signed up.
