ACA Sign-Ups Are Below Last Year’s Rate

Kaiser Health News (12/19, Appleby, Beard) reports, “It’s open enrollment season for the Affordable Care Act – and there are ongoing challenges.” Returning and new “sign-ups through healthcare.gov – the federal marketplace that serves 31 states – are well below last year’s rate.” According to the Post, “new enrollments were just over 730,000 in early December, compared with 1.5 million at the same time last year.” In order “to give consumers in those states more time to enroll, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services extended the deadline to Wednesday to sign up for coverage that starts Jan. 1.”