On the last day to sign up for ObamaCare, the health care overhaul was reportedly on track to sign up more than 7 million Americans for insurance coverage, though the number of enrollees who have paid for their insurance premiums is still unclear.
Government officials confirmed the 7 million target to The Associated Press late Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of an official announcement.
Seven million was the original target set by the Congressional Budget Office for enrollment in taxpayer-subsidized private health insurance through new online markets created under President Obama's signature legislation.
That was scaled back to 6 million after the disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov last fall. Several state-run websites also had crippling problems.
On Monday afternoon, a technical glitch was preventing people from filing new applications. A tech team, though, was brought in to resolve the issue.
Earlier Monday, a series of error messages came up as the large volume of users stressed the system.
According to HHS, more than 100,000 people were using the system at once as of noon. The increased traffic is good news for the administration, but the recurring website problems are not.
"This is like trying to find a parking spot at Wal-Mart on Dec. 23," said Jason Stevenson, working with a Utah nonprofit group helping people enroll.
Officials said the site had not crashed but was experiencing very heavy volume. The website, which was receiving 1.5 million visitors a day last week, had recorded about 2 million through 3 p.m. EDT. Call centers have more than 840,000 calls.
The White House said Thursday that more than 6 million Americans have signed up for private insurance plans since October 1 through the federal and state ObamaCare exchanges -- a major accomplishment toward the White House's goal of 7 million enrollees by March 31, considering the disastrous start.
Though the overall 6 million-plus number is close to the initial projection by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Republicans and other ObamaCare critics point out that the president has made dozens of changes to the law through waivers, deadline extensions and other executive actions including some that appear to go beyond the scope of his powers.
The most recent came Wednesday with the White House announcing that Americans who have unsuccessfully tried to enroll by March 31 now have until mid-April.
While Obama has aggressively sought out 18- to 34-year-olds, some of the more recent reports show most of the enrollees are 35 and older.
Yet the bigger question is perhaps whether the law has indeed helped insure at least some of the estimated 48 million Americans who previously did not have insurance or couldn't get it because of a pre-existing condition.
The most recent finding by the often-cited McKinsey & Company shows 27 percent of enrollees were previously uninsured and that roughly 75 percent of those who signed up for private insurance under ObamaCare have paid their premiums.
The White House and other supporters of the law were hoping for an enrollment surge that would confound skeptics.
The insurance markets -- or exchanges -- offer subsidized private health insurance to people who don't have access to coverage through their jobs. The federal government is taking the lead in 36 states, while 14 other states plus Washington, D.C., are running their own enrollment websites.
New York, running its own site, reported more than 812,000 had signed up by Sunday morning, nearly 100,000 of them last week.
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said Monday that Republicans remain committed to repealing ObamaCare. The House will vote this week on a bill eliminate a provision of the law defining full-time work as averaging 30 hours or more per week.
"House Republicans will continue to work to repeal this law and protect families and small businesses from its harmful consequences, and that's why we're taking action this week to repeal the law's 30-hour rule that has become a significant barrier to job growth and higher wages," Boehner said in a statement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Original Post by: http://ift.tt/1jTj9Aw
Source :
Amzing Moment: ObamaCare sign-ups reportedly on track to hit 7 million – but will they pay?