More than a million people have enrolled in plans on HealthCare.gov since Nov. 1 and more than 300,000 did after Donald Trump was elected president, the federal officials reported.
Of the 1,008,200 sign-ups, 246,000 are new to the federal marketplace. The overall total is 53,000 more than the first 12 days of open enrollment in 2015.
While running for president Trump said he would repeal the Affordable Care Act. He has since said he would keep certain popular features.
Andrew Slavitt, acting administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “said that since Nov. 9, the day after Republicans secured control of the White House and both houses of Congress, the federal marketplace has received 8,000 telephone calls from people wanting to know how the election would affect their insurance coverage,” Robert Pear reports for The New York Times.
Slavitt said the number of people enrolling “shows that health insurance is something people want and need.”
The Obama administration’s comparisons with last year need a caveat.
While 39 states use the health care website, Kentucky dismantled its state-based exchange, branded Kynect, forcing residents to only be able to enroll at HealthCare.gov.
More than 100,000 Kentuckians had signed up for health insurance on Kynect, reports Kentucky Health News, a sister publication of The Rural Blog.
The Rural Blog is a digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, from the IRJCI, based at the University of Kentucky. The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues is an extension program for rural journalists and news outlets. It takes no positions on issues and advocates only for strong news coverage, responsible commentary and things that make them possible, such as open-government laws. For more information see www.RuralJournalism.org.