Sarah Kliff has become the go-to reporter for updates on the Affordable Care Act. She gets the news and she understands the data. Above all, she knows how to interpret the data.
The latest: "Just about 1.2 million people have gained health coverage through Obamacare, according to new federal data released Wednesday morning." That doesn't include December's numbers yet.
About a quarter of that number applies to those who will get Medicaid.
The numbers in the state marketplaces have grown too, albeit not as quickly. In the 14 states running their own exchanges, sign-ups went from 79,000 in the first month up to 227,000 for the two months together. This was slower growth than the federal marketplace, and suggests a bit of an evening out between the local and national health exchanges.
Whether this is good news depends a bit about the context you put these new numbers in. Comparing HealthCare.gov's enrollment from October to November shows huge growth, with the number of enrolled nearly quadrupling from the first month to the second. This is the type of growth pattern that the White House has projected: Slow at the start, but growing quickly as the deadline to purchase coverage gets closer. ...WaPo
Compared to what was expected before the website crashed, the numbers aren't so great. But now people are motivated by the end of December deadline. December is looking as though it will end on a much higher note.
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Update from the Times:
In the first week of December, about 112,000 people selected plans through the federal marketplace, according to people familiar with the project, which would mean enrollments for this month have already outpaced those in November.
If sign-ups continue at the current rate, more than a million people may have selected plans by Jan. 1, when major provisions of the new law go into effect. The Obama administration was counting on having seven million enrollees by the end of the first enrollment period on March 31.
The new data became available as Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, prepared for another confrontation with Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. ...NYT
