More than 5 million consumers have signed up for insurance on the federal and state-based health insurance exchanges, CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner wrote in a blog post Monday.
The update came exactly two weeks before the end of the open enrollment period on the marketplaces where individuals can shop for and purchase private health plans. Tavenner noted that the last several days have been the busiest since December and that the agency's call center took about 198,000 calls last Thursday alone, marking the busiest day since Dec. 23. Meanwhile, another 130,000 calls came in over the weekend and last week, HealthCare.gov—the federal Web portal that was plagued by technical and functional problems in the early months of open enrollment—had more than 4 million visits. The site saw an additional 1 million visits during the weekend.
