Cindy Yamanaka/The Orange County Register/ZUMAPRESS.com
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced yesterday that as of February 1 nearly 3.3 million Americans have signed up for health insurance plans through Obamacare’s state and federal-run exchanges.
Of the new Obamacare enrollees—1.1 million of whom selected health plans in January—HHS reported that 55 percent are female and 25 percent are young adults between the ages of 18 and 34.
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While slightly more young adults signed up in January than over the October through December period, the numbers are still lower than the original goal of 2.7 million adults (or 38 percent of 7 million new enrollees) to make the exchanges successful.
HHS has ramped up its promotional efforts to young adults ahead of its March 31 deadline. That includes a planned Youth Enrollment Day this Saturday, which comes at the start of an ill-timed 62-hour maintenance shutdown of the Social Security Administration’s computer system. Social Security is necessary for verifying Obamacare enrollees’ identities on the health law’s main website, Healthcare.gov.
In a conference call with reporters, Sebelius said the new figures “paint a more holistic picture of coverage…and it’s great news.”
But the Obama administration will not disclose how many of Americans who have selected plans on the Obamacare exchanges have actually paid for premiums, the normal “enrollment” standard. “As soon as we have our automated system complete and tested we will provide that data,” said Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Four months after its disastrous launch, CMS is still in the process of building out automated payment systems in Healthcare.gov, and officials have not given any estimates for when those online features will be completed.
Officials also did not report how many of those signed up for Obamacare were previously uninsured, downplaying a McKinsey & Co. survey released last month that found only 11 percent of consumers buying plans under Obamacare said they had been uninsured Americans.
This story was produced by The Foundry’s news team. Nothing here should be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation.
