Obamacare enrollment is up but short of last year’s tally
Enrollment in 2018 Affordable Care Act plans on the federal insurance exchange is relatively brisk despite this year’s shorter sign-up period and the negative news coverage the law and higher premiums got this year.
Data out Tuesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show about 4.7 million people signed up for health plans through Dec. 9. That’s about 650,000 more people than at the similar point last year, but it will still be a challenge for enrollment to beat last year’s numbers.
The number of new consumers signing up increased nearly 17% over the equivalent week last year, which former CMS spokeswoman Lori Lodes called “a good sign for the final surge of enrollment.”
Lodes noted that the shortened enrollment period — from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15, rather than until the end of January — means “there’s just not enough time, even though demand is higher than ever before.” Lodes co-founded the ACA advocacy group Get Covered America.
The enrollment numbers undermine the contention that the administration is undermining enrollment, said Christopher Condeluci, a former Senate Finance Committee Republican counsel who helped draft portions of the ACA.
“Less outreach and a shortened open enrollment period will have an impact on overall enrollment numbers, but that impact will be far less than what people have made it out to be,” said Condeluci, a consultant and health care lawyer.
He credited the higher premium subsidies this year with driving the higher enrollment numbers.