US

White House Estimates 11.4 Million Signed Up For Obamacare

Font Size:

The White House released a video Tuesday evening of President Obama and Obamacare chief Sylvia Burwell celebrating a “preliminary estimate” of 11.4 million Americans who signed up for insurance nationwide during the health law’s second open enrollment period.

“Our preliminary estimate is that there are 11.4 million Americans who have either signed up or re-enrolled in the second enrollment period,” Burwell told Obama in the video, which the White House posted on Facebook and Twitter Tuesday evening.

“And the final day, we had more consumers sign up than we’ve ever had, last year or this year,” Burwell added as background music cued up.

“It gives you some sense of how hungry people were out there for affordable, accessible health insurance,” Obama said. “The Affordable Care Act is working, it’s working a little better than we anticipated,” Obama added.

The Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation originally predicted that 13 million Americans would sign up for coverage on Obamacare exchanges by this point; the agency downgraded that estimate to 12 million in January. The administration’s preliminary figures have failed to meet either projection.

But HHS issued a memorandum just before this open enrollment period began, which downgraded the agency’s own expectations to between 9.1 and 9.9 million customers at the end of the second enrollment period. HHS said it expected the exchanges to take longer to “ramp up” enrollment than the CBO and JCT had estimated.

Burwell emphasized that the 11.4 million figure is just a “preliminary estimate” and will still change. The administration has already pushed back the deadline to sign up for coverage on HealthCare.gov to Feb. 22 and most state-run exchanges have extended enrollment as well.

Burwell has said she’s considering offering a “special enrollment period” before tax season for Americans who missed the memo that Obamacare will charge a $325 penalty to those who don’t purchase health insurance this year (or 2 percent of income). That decision could come in the next several weeks.

A group of 10 Democratic senators wrote to Burwell Friday asking for an extra enrollment period. The increasingly hefty fines in the individual mandate, which will grow to $695 per adult or 2.5 percent of income by 2016, could spark more pushback against the health care law. Americans will have to pay the tax for the first time this coming tax season.

Changed deadlines aside, the estimate is still sure to change. Last year’s enrollment total, which came in at 8.1 million at the end of the enrollment period, fell to 6.7 million after sign-ups who didn’t pay for their plans were discounted and ineligible customers were kicked off their plans.

Follow Sarah on Twitter

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel