President Obama told reporters Friday more than 500,000 people signed up for health insurance through HealthCare.gov during the first three weeks of December, according to a report from The Hill.
That brings the total number of people who have enrolled through the marketplaces to more than 1 million. Federal officials hope a total of 7 million people will enroll in health plans through the state and federal exchanges during the initial six-month enrollment period, which ends March 31, according to the report.
HHS has not released an enrollment report for December. The agency reported nearly 365,000 individuals selected health plans through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act marketplaces by the end of November, including 227,478 people who selected a plan through the state-based health insurance exchanges and 137,204 individuals who chose plans through the federal exchange.
During the first month of open enrollment, HHS reported 106,185 people completed applications and selected a marketplace health plan through the exchanges, including 79,391 enrolled through the state exchanges and 26,794 enrolled through the federal health insurance exchange site.
Enrollment numbers have been lower than anticipated due to the many technical problems that have plagued the federal exchange site. However, federal officials have made "substantial progress" in repairing HealthCare.gov, which can now support 50,000 users at a time, according to an HHS progress report.
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