Open enrollment under Obamacare lags in Week 10
January 15 is the deadline for coverage beginning February 1; nearly 8.7 million signed up so far, CMS says.
The momentum of open enrollment continued to wind down, with growth of less than 75,000 consumers in week 10, from January 3 to January 9, 2016.
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 74,239 consumers signed up for coverage through the Healthcare.gov platform, though no numbers were specified as to which were new consumers and which were renewing coverage. That's down a little less than 10,000 from last week, which saw 83,297 consumers signing up.
"Consumers have only two days left before the January 15 deadline to sign up for coverage starting February 1," Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. "We saw unprecedented demand for January 1st coverage and continue to make steady progress signing up new customers as open enrollment proceeds. We are focused on educating customers about the affordable options at Healthcare.gov and providing them the help they need to make the best coverage choices."
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Overall, almost 8.7 million consumers have signed up for coverage during this year's open enrollment period, which started November 1. According to numbers released by CMS, the Sunshine and Lonestar states saw the most consumer activity this year, with 1,583,088 signing up in Florida and 1,120,440 signing up in Texas. Also seeing high numbers were Georgia with 522,895, North Carolina with 563,830 and Pennsylvania with 411,675.
Twitter: @BethJSanborn
