Obamacare enrollment brisk but deadline nears in shorter signup period
In
The figures don't include people automatically re-enrolled in their insurance plans, and they don't include those signing up in states that operate their own exchanges.
Enrollment for 2018 insurance under the Affordable Care Act -- also known as Obamacare -- began
Locally, organizations that help people sign up are making a final push as the deadline nears.
The
"We did 233 enrollments on Monday, and we are getting progressively busier each day" this week, said
director of the Insure Central Texas program at Foundation Communities. "I'm optimistically hopeful that we will meet our goal" of helping about 5,000 individuals enroll by the time open enrollment ends.
If her group reaches the target, it will have helped the same number of people sign up as it helped last year -- but in half the time. Through last week, the Insure Central Texas program had helped 4,040 Central Texans sign up, about twice as many as in the same period last year.
Overall, however, enrollment statewide and nationally appears unlikely to match the numbers achieved during last year's longer sign-up period.
Nationally, 9.2 million people signed up for insurance plans on the federal exchange during last year's three-month open enrollment period -- nearly double this year's enrollment with Friday's deadline approaching. A total of about 1.23 million people signed up in
Colvin said many regions have lacked the local resources to provide the kind of promotion and support necessary to keep enrollment on track to equal last year amid the abbreviated sign-up time period.
"The burden this year fell completely on local communities" to inform people about the Affordable Care Act and help them enroll, said Colvin, whose organization focuses on the segment of citizens who need help signing up or have complex medical issues. "In other parts of
In addition to shortening the enrollment period this year, the Trump administration cut money for an annual federal campaign to promote it by 90 percent -- to
Funding for
President
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