The Obama administration has beaten a monthly health insurance enrollment target for the first time, according to data released Wednesday showing that more than 1.14 million people signed up for health plans in January in the new insurance marketplace.
The latest enrollment data from the Obama administration show that 3.3 million people have signed up for private health insurance through federal and state insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act. This figure represents all enrollment from Oct. 1 through Feb. 1. It includes both people who have and have not paid their first month’s premium. Of those people, 1,146,100 selected their health insurance plans in January, meaning there was a 53 percent increase enrollment last month alone.
This makes January the first month that the Obama administration has beaten an enrollment target. In September, way before HealthCare.gov’s botched launch, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projected that 1,059,900 people would sign up for private health insurance in January.
The new enrollment figures also show a slight increase in the number of young adults signing up for coverage. Young adults between 18 and 35 made up 27 percent of the enrollees in January, compared to 24 percent of those signing up from October through December.
Taken together, this means that 25 percent of those who have enrolled are the young adults that the Obama administration thinks will be healthier, and thus hold down insurance premiums in the exchanges. This is still below the 40 percent target that the Obama administration had previously set for overall exchange enrollment, although the hope, on their part, is that the 25 percent number continues to inch up in February and March.
The biggest takeaway here, probably, is that Obamacare is starting to look more and more like the law that the White House had hoped to launch — not the one where technical glitches made it nearly impossible for shoppers to get in the door.
Source: washingtonpost.com
