NBC-About 9.2 million
people signed up for private health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges for 2017,
a little down from last year, the federal government
said Friday.
Health policy
experts and even staff at the Health and Human Services Department had not been
sure the Trump administration would release the final signup numbers, given
President Donald Trump's hostility to the program.
But the figures came
out right on schedule Friday, albeit in a dryly worded news release far
different from the usual excited language seen under the Obama administration.
The numbers are down
from the 9.6 million announced at the end of open enrollment last year, even
though enrollments had seemed to be slightly above the year before until Obama
left office.
"Obamacare has
failed the American people, with one broken promise after another," HHS
spokesman Matt Lloyd said in a statement.
Trump's
administration had at first pulled, and then partly restored the planned
advertising campaign that had become normal for the last weeks of the open
enrollment period. Former HealthCare.gov chief marketing officer Joshua Peck had accused the
Trump administration of deliberately slowing enrollment.
Those selections
were made from a market that experienced a 25 percent increase over the
previous year in the average premium for the benchmark second-lowest cost
silver plan as well as a 28 percent decline in the number of issuers
participating over the past year."
The well-publicized
premium increases were mostly offset by federal subsidies but customers have
complained as insurance companies pulled out of the marketplaces, leaving
people in some counties with a single plan to choose from.
"Of the more
than 9.2 million consumers who selected a plan through the HealthCare.gov
platform, about 3 million are new consumers, which means 33 percent of all plan
selections were from new consumers," CMS said.
"In addition to
the approximately 3 million new HealthCare.gov consumers, about 6.2 million
were returning Marketplace consumers."
More details will
come in March. Details from the states that operate their own exchanges will
come separately.
In 39 states,
customers can buy private insurance on HealthCare.gov,
the federally run website, while the other states and Washington D.C. run their
own online exchanges. Enrollment closed on Jan. 31 for 2017.
On Thursday
Washington state's exchange said more than 225,000 people had signed up for
plans on the marketplace by the deadline, up 13 percent over last year.
ACA enrollment was up a few weeks ago, but fell behind last year in the
final week. Only thing that really changed was the pulling of ads.
— Larry Levitt
(@larry_levitt) February 3, 2017
Obamacare opponents
played down the numbers.
"People may be
enrolled, but that doesn't mean Obamacare is working," said House Energy
and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, a Oregon Republican.
"We have a new
class of uninsured patients under this law - one where folks are priced out of
actually using their coverage because of sky-high premiums, deductibles, and
other out-of-pocket costs."
But Peck said people
were eager to sign up.
"Last year, we
saw about 700,000 people enroll during the final week of
enrollment — the bulk of whom signed up in the two to three days before the
deadline," Peck blogged.
"This year, a
combination of factors including more targeted and efficient outreach and a
letter from the IRS to people who paid the penalty, led us to believe we'd see
an even bigger surge in the days before the final deadline. Keep in mind,
through January 14th, the final enrollment snapshot under the Obama
Administration, enrollment was tracking ahead of last year," he added.
Peck said his team
had hoped for 1 million new signups in the final week.
"But
interference from the Trump administration — notably pulling millions of
dollars in TV and online search advertising undoubtedly drove this number
down," he said.
"Based on the
performance analysis we did earlier this year, I'd expect that about 35 percent
of that enrollment or about 350,000 people were lost due to Trump shutting down
the bulk of the outreach budget days before the deadline."
The Republican-led
Congress is debating whether to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act in full, or
just to change parts of it.
"There has also
been tremendous uncertainty and confusion around the future of the ACA, which
has likely affected enrollment as well," said Larry Levitt of the Kaiser
Family Foundation, which analyses health policy.
Historically, people
usually wait until the last minute to sign up, and that is an important
opportunity for outreach.
"Since taking
office, the new Administration reduced television advertising before the
deadline by more than 75 percent, stopped all digital advertising, threatened
other outreach efforts, and created additional uncertainty about key consumer
protections - meanwhile, Congressional Republicans have rushed to put in place
a fast track process for repealing care without a replacement," Protect
Our Care, a coalition of groups that support Obamacare, said in a statement.
Polls have indicated
that voters want to keep much, if not most, aspects of the law.
"There is no
doubt that enrollment would have been even higher if not for the uncertainty
caused by political attacks on the law, and the Trump Administration's decision
not to provide consumers with all of the resources and support available to
help them enroll," Enroll America, a group that actively supports
enrollment, said in a statement.
"But the fact
that in the face of opposition and controversy, millions of Americans continued
to enroll is an incredible testament to the importance of Affordable Care Act
coverage to families all across the country."
NBC NEWS
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