Federal health care site sees rise

Enrollment surges as deadline approaches

More than 1 million new customers have signed up for insurance on the federal insurance exchange Healthcare. gov and the site is developing near- deadline momentum, federal officials said Wednesday.

Six days before the Dec. 15 deadline for coverage that starts Jan. 1, acting Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Andrew Slavitt said there has been a “surge of interest” is signing up for insurance.

By the end of last week, 2.8 million people had chosen plans on Healthcare. gov, which serves 38 states that didn’t set up their own insurance exchanges. That includes the 1 million new enrollees and an additional 1.8 million who renewed their policies.

CMS warns that it’s not fair to compare this year with last year as the enrollment period started two weeks earlier so the weeks don’t match up exactly. Charles Gaba, an Affordable Care Act supporter who tracks the enrollment data closely on ACA-signups. net, says the latest numbers are slightly above his expectations.

The administration also says it won’t be doing special enrollment periods for people who are shocked into wanting to sign up after they see their penalty at tax time for not having insurance, something they offered this year. Insurers have been critical of the unpredictability caused by these special periods — which also are offered for people in a variety of situations, such as those who move out of state, marry, divorce or lose their job.

Such shock, however, is likely to occur in 2017 as the average penalty for not having insurance in 2016 will be $ 969 per household, the Kaiser Family Foundation said Wednesday, a 47% increase over the average of $ 661 for not having coverage this year.

“All the evidence for us, is that the marketplace is strong, vibrant and it’s growing.” Andrew Slavitt, acting CMS administrator