According to Obama, much of this figure came from the over 500,000 who signed up on the federal site this month.
According to a statement made by President Barack Obama, over one million people have now purchased their health insurance plans on the exchanges across the country, with over half of that number coming from the federal HealthCare.gov website, throughout the month of December.
Despite a very rocky start, it does look as though enrollment has considerably picked up.
The president revealed hints at these figures that had been tightly guarded by the Department of Health and Human Services until now. He also went on to indicate that it is now much easier to use the federal exchange website for buying health insurance plans than it had been during the first two months of its existence.
December has proven to be a much more successful time for Americans buying health insurance plans.
In a news conference, Obama stated that “More than half a million Americans have signed up in first three weeks of December,” adding that “In the federal website tens of thousands are enrolling every day.” It was at this point that he explained that over one million people have already purchased their coverage across the country. That said purchasing through enrollment and actually starting to make premiums payments is two completely different occurrences, and both are required to be complete if full enrollment is to occur.
The president said that when all is said and done, despite the problems that had been faced by the HealthCare.gov website, there are now millions of people across the country who are now set to have their coverage become effective as of New Year’s Day.
In terms of the numbers that had been previously revealed, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is behind the operation of the exchange websites, said that only 365,000 people had enrolled throughout the complete months of October and November, when the federal site was not functioning properly.
When it came to the way that the federal website was running for the first two months, Obama didn’t hide. He said “Obviously, we screwed it up.” However, it does look as though the largest problems from the site have been cleared and that Americans are now purchasing health insurance plans in droves, to be ready to comply with the individual mandate.
