Federal officials have said 700,000 people have completed applications for health insurance coverage through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act exchanges, according to a Kaiser Health News report.
Julie Bataille, director of the CMS office of communications, told reporters in a telephone press conference the agency is confident people will be able to apply and enroll by the Dec. 15 deadline for coverage starting on Jan. 1, according to the report.
Ms. Bataille didn't indicate how many of the applicants so far used the federal exchange site, HealthCare.gov, and how many sought coverage through state-run sites.
Earlier this week, the Republican National Committee announced it had sent a Freedom of Information Act request to CMS concerning the number of people who have successfully enrolled in health plans through HealthCare.gov. The federal site has experienced numerous technical problems since its launch, such as people not being able to create accounts and crashes due to high traffic. The RNC stated releasing the enrollment numbers was the only way the Obama administration could prove the site isn't a failure.
Ms. Bataille told reporters CMS is working on making the site run more smoothly.
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