More good news for President Obama, who already took a victory lap in the Rose Garden after it became clear that enrollments via Obamacare would top the original CBO’s projection of 7 million, via Politico:
At least 7.5 million Americans have chosen insurance plans through the Obamacare exchanges, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at a Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday. The administration had earlier said that 7.1 million Americans enrolled as of April 1, but that didn’t count all the state figures or people allowed to complete signup after March 31.
The new figures are the latest indication of the eleventh- (and, in some cases, technically thirteenth-) hour surge in enrollments. Only about 4.2 million people had signed up for coverage at the end of February—a total which didn’t reach 5 million until about three weeks ago, nor exceed 6 million until March 27, according to the White House’s count.
Still, as a reminder: While the total number of enrollees is serving as shorthand for the law’s success, the more pressing issue may be the breakdown of just how many young—presumably healthy—Americans sign up for the exchange. We don’t have those numbers yet.
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