Obamacare’s condition has been upgraded from “not a death spiral” to exceeding targets for the first time. Data released by the Obama administration on Wednesday shows 1.149 million people signed up for coverage on the new health exchanges last month, beating the goal of 1.059 million enrollments in January. Overall, we’re still seeing the effects of the disastrous healthcare.gov rollout. The Department of Health and Human Services said it hoped to reach 4.4 million enrollments by now, but so far only 3.3 million people have signed up.
As predicted, we’re seeing more young people sign up as the March 31 deadline draws closer. In January, the number of enrollees between 18 and 35 was 27 percent, up slightly from 24 percent in 2013.
“These encouraging trends show that more Americans are enrolling every day, and finding quality, affordable coverage in the marketplace,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Experts say it’s possible the administration will reach its ultimate enrollment goal by the end of the March – particularly because the Congressional Budget Office recently lowered the target from 7 million to 6 million in light of the website problems.
