Nearly 9 million people sign up for coverage through health insurance marketplace
During the open enrollment period that ended on Feb. 22, more than 8.8 million people signed up for coverage through HealthCare.gov, the website for the federally facilitated health insurance exchange.
The numbers included information from the 37 states that use HealthCare.gov to enroll their residents. The remaining 13 states and Washington, D.C. run their own online exchanges.
In 2014, 35 states used the Healthcare.gov platform. Oregon and Nevada joined them for 2015.
The federal government extended the deadline from Feb. 15 to Feb. 22 for people who experienced technical issues or long wait times. More than 40,000 people signed up for health plans during the seven-day extension period.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a news release that approximately 90,000 people who enrolled on HealthCare.gov in 2014 could not enroll for 2015 because they did not provide documentation for their U.S. citizenship or immigration status.
More than 12.4 million submitted applications during the open enrollment period from Nov. 15 to Feb. 22. The average amount of time a consumer waited before reaching a customer service representative was 8 minutes and 17 seconds.
“The millions of consumers who signed up for Marketplace coverage through HealthCare.gov demonstrate that the Affordable Care Act is working,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said. “The law provides access to affordable, quality coverage and strengthens the financial security of working Americans.”
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.