ACA Exchange Enrollment Numbers Still Not Available
Although the Obama administration has yet to release official first week enrollment figures for the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges, administration officials on Friday -- the fourth day of open enrollment in the online marketplaces -- said that millions of people are continuing to visit the federal exchange portal at Healthcare.gov, the Washington Times reports (Howell [1], Washington Times, 10/4).
Officials added that the early consumer interest in the exchanges had surpassed their initial expectations (Epstein, Politico, 10/5). However, there still was no "specific data" to show whether those visitors actually signed up for health coverage on the website, according to White House spokesperson Jay Carney.
Carney said, "All we can know now and what we can tell you now is that people are getting through the system, they are enrolling, there are great anecdotes out there of people who have successfully enrolled, and that process will continue." He added, "We'll aggregate [the information] and release it ... at the appropriate time" (Howell [1], Washington Times, 10/4).
Kentucky Exchange Touts Good Numbers
Meanwhile, early data from Kentucky's state-run exchange -- Kynect -- show that it experienced a high number of account registrations and applications during the first week, the Washington Times reports.
On Friday, Kynect spokesperson Gwenda Bond said, "The correlation between account registration and applications is extremely high so far," adding that peak hours for enrollment were between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. She said a key reason for the high numbers is that consumers are able to shop for insurance on the website without creating an account (Howell [2], Washington Times, 10/4).
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