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How Jim Jordan tried to connect the dots on Biden’s $8 million book deal

‘Never Trump?’ ‘Never Biden’ voters might loom larger.

Ukraine gamble pays off: Republicans face little backlash in primaries

Book Tour: At home with Amor Towles

In photos: The scene in Houston after severe storms killed at least 7 people

Deadly storm blasts Houston

Blue Origin to fly again as space tourism struggles to get off the ground

Why this company’s biggest fans turned against it

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Cruise ships to return to Baltimore two months after bridge collapse 

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Zelensky’s chief aide flexes power, irks critics — and makes no apologies

IDF recovers bodies of 3 Israelis killed on Oct. 7

With its energy network nearly destroyed, Ukraine already fears the winter

Biden’s false claim that inflation was 9 percent when he took office

Did Obamacare ‘massively’ increase the cost of health care?

At campus protests, ‘DO NOT TALK TO THE MEDIA’!

CNN gets a presidential debate — and a much-needed win

Netflix will air NFL’s Christmas games, a major step for streaming service

Carolyn Hax: Is it weird to ask other people to care about you?

Ask Amy: Can’t a single woman eat alone without interruption?

Miss Manners: Miss Manners: Gag gift falls flat

Joey Gallo returns, but Nats endure another quiet offensive night

Walter Johnson’s jersey from 1920 showdown with Babe Ruth sold at auction

Bryce Harper, Joey Gallo and a bond forged by baseball since they were kids

Russia shows resilience. There is more to do for Ukraine.

Trump promises tax cuts and fewer rules. CEOs shouldn’t fall for it.

Tariffs against China hamstring the transition to a clean energy future

She finished chemo then got a medical degree: ‘The dream is real now’

Puppy abandoned with heart-rending note is adopted, named Minerva

Man, 91, shocks tiny firehouse with $500K gift: ‘Nobody knew how much I’d saved’

Trump

Nearly 6 million Americans so far have enrolled in insurance for 2016 through HealthCare.gov, President Obama announced on Friday, touting a big increase over last year that he said shows the Affordable Care Act is succeeding.

The number who have already signed up on the federal insurance exchange compares with 3.4 million at the same stage a year ago and comes at a significant moment in the ACA’s enrollment cycle: the deadline for people who want health plans in place starting on New Year’s Day. The figures also show that 2.4 million of the current total are new customers, about a third more than at this point last year.

This good news for proponents of the health-care law prompted the Obama administration to catapult it from what are normally routine announcements by federal health officials to the opening of a presidential press conference.

“The more who sign up, the stronger the system becomes,” Obama said at his final press conference of the year.

<em><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/aca-enrollment-deadline-extended-two-days-after-last-minute-surge/2015/12/15/094d1686-a391-11e5-ad3f-991ce3374e23_story.html">[ACA enrollment deadline extended two days after last-minute surge]</a></em>

Earlier in the week, federal health officials signaled that interest in HealthCare.gov was running high. They granted a 48-hour extension to the original Dec. 15 deadline for obtaining insurance for Jan. 1, saying that the volume was so great that about 1 million people had been placed in waiting lines  to reach federal call centers or use the enrollment website.

That surge occurred even though the administration recently tamped down public expectations for how many additional consumers are likely to get ACA insurance for the coming year.

This fall, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell issued a forecast that 10 million people will be covered through such health plans by the end of 2016 — only slightly more than expected for the end of this month. Burwell also has said that enrollment marketing efforts this year would focus on a cadre of 10.5 uninsured people who are eligible to sign up on the exchanges, intended for those without access to affordable insurance through an employer. HHS has forecast that one-quarter to one-third of them would enroll, which means that the 2.4 million new customers to date are already approaching that prediction.

The common wisdom has been that attracting new customers to HealthCare.gov would be more difficult in this third year, because people still uninsured have ignored or rejected two previous opportunities to gain coverage. On the other hand, the health-care law requires most U.S. residents to carry health insurance, and penalties next year will rise to $695 per person or 2 percent of income.

The figures announced by the president, and additional detail provided by federal health officials, reflect activity in 38 states that are now relying on HealthCare.gov. They exclude the dozen states, plus the District of Columbia, that operate separate insurance marketplaces under the ACA.

In one important respect, the figures obscure the overall number of existing customers who will continue their coverage for another year. Under the rules for HealthCare.gov, the computer system re-enrolls people automatically if they do not sign up by mid-December. HHS officials have been cautioning consumers not to wait for this automatic enrollment, saying they could face spikes in insurance rates unless they shop around for the best available health plan.

The automatic renewals will take place by the end of this month, and federal health officials, briefing reporters on Friday, said that a majority had already enrolled but declined to specify how many had not done so.

Still, administration officials emphasized that use of HealthCare.gov, particularly in the days leading up to the deadline for Jan. 1 coverage, was running high.

“There was an unprecedented amount of traffic at the call center and an incredible amount of activity on HealthCare.gov,” said Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

On Tuesday, 600,000 people chose health plans, the busiest day for HealthCare.gov since it first opened in October 2013, Slavitt said. The proportion of new customers increased as the deadline approached — so that newcomers accounted for nearly half of the 1.8 million people who enrolled during the last five days.

Robert Laszewski, a health-care consultant critical of the Affordable Care Act, contended that the higher enrollment so far reflects “significant churning,” as existing customers shop around on HealthCare.gov to try to avoid price increases in the plans they have now.

The enrollment season continues until Jan. 31. So it remains unclear whether the overall enrollment will be higher than expected by then, or whether a larger share are simply signing up for insurance earlier.

Part of Washington Post team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for coverage of 9-11 and the government's response to the attacks

2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist for national reporting for series co-wrote on the medical treatment of immigrants detained by the federal government.

Janesville: An American Story

Brown University, AB in American civilization, magna cum laude

Fellowships at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.

Amy Goldstein is The Washington Post’s national health-care policy writer. During her three decades at The Post, her stories have taken her from homeless shelters to Air Force One, often focused on the intersection of politics and public policy. She is the author of "Janesville: An American Story."

Amy Goldstein

The Washington Post

Biden administration

The Fix

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Democracy in America

Election 2024

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