Obamacare signups soar against odds

ALBANY — Obamacare is doing better than ever in New York — despite GOP efforts to kill it.

State health officials said Wednesday that as of Dec. 15, 4.18 million people had used New York’s Obamacare exchange to sign up for health insurance, a new high for the program and 700,000 more than last year’s figure.

Open enrollment continues through January, but Dec. 15 was the deadline to obtain coverage that begins New Year’s Day.

“There is still an appetite for this type of coverage and apparently a growing appetite,” said Bill Hammond, director of health policy for the Empire Center.

New York’s enrollments included 229,000 people who used the exchange to obtain private insurance, 2.87 million who used it to enroll in Medicaid and 716,000 who signed up for the Essential Plan — state-run and federally funded coverage for people making up to twice the federal poverty level.

The new enrollments come amid ominous signs for the Affordable Care Act, which created Obamacare. The tax bill Congress adopted Wednesday gets rid of the Obamacare individual mandate, which instituted a tax penalty for not having health coverage.