Nearly 6.4 million have obtained health insurance coverage through HealthCare.gov as of Dec. 19. Of that, 1.9 million are new sign-ups while the remainder are manual and automatic re-enrollees, HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced Tuesday.
When combined with the more than 750,000 people who have signed up on state-based exchanges over the first month of open enrollment, total sign-ups have surpassed 7.1 million. The federal agency plans to release a complete monthly report with additional state and federal sign-up figures next week, Burwell said during her news briefing.
The administration has been reluctant to release state data because HHS wanted to ensure it is receiving the most accurate and up-to-date numbers even as some state exchanges extended the sign-up deadlines for when people would have to be in a plan for their coverage to be active by Jan.1, Burwell said.
The 7.1 million figure means the Obama administration is quickly closing in on its 9.1 million goal for sign-ups by the time the second open-enrollment period closes Feb. 15.
“We still have a ways to go but we are headed in the right direction. The marketplace is stable, people have chosen to shop,” Burwell said.
Follow Virgil Dickson on Twitter: @MHvdickson