New Obamacare enrollment tally won't include expected December surge

The Obama administration this week is expected to release November enrollment figures on the HealthCare.gov website. The monthly total undoubtedly will be higher than the 27,000 people who managed to sign up for 2014 coverage in October during the disastrous website launch.

“We're scrubbing enrollment numbers right now,” said Joanne Peters, an HHS spokeswoman, in an e-mail. “But we certainly expect enrollment to increase given (the) technical improvements we've made to the site, given the fact that we're seeing enrollment take place across all of our customer service channels, and given also what we have seen happen in terms of the surge in enrollment taking place in state-based marketplaces.”

Bloomberg reported last week that roughly 100,000 individuals signed up for coverage through the federal exchange in November. If that's accurate, it's nearly four times the enrollment seen in October. But it's still far short of the pace needed if enrollment is going to hit the administration's target of 3.3 million by Dec. 31 and 7 million by the end of March.

The November figures will not reflect a reported big surge in enrollments since Dec. 1, when the administration announced it had met its goal of getting the website functioning well for the “vast majority” of users. The Washington Post reported 56,000 enrollments in the first three days of the December, a figure HHS has not confirmed.

Celebrities with youth appeal are joining the effort to boost enrollment, including writer-actress Lena Dunham of the cable TV show “Girls,” who posted a Twitter message to promote an Internet town hall meeting on Obamacare.

Follow Paul Demko on Twitter: @MHpdemko