More than 3.6 million people signed up for a health plan in the first five weeks of the Affordable Care Act's open enrollment period, the CMS said Wednesday.
With little more than a week before enrollment ends for individual exchange coverage, the number of sign-ups has fallen way behind the pace of previous years, given the shortened enrollment period.
The ACA's fifth open enrollment is almost three-quarters of the way through. The Trump administration shortened the period to 45 days from 90 days, and it will end on Dec. 15.
During previous ACA enrollment periods in the past two years, more than 7.2 million people had signed up for coverage when the period was almost 75% complete, according to an analysis by consulting firm Avalere Health.
The CMS data does not include people who will be auto-enrolled at the close of open enrollment. Still, sign-ups would have to skyrocket in the next week to match last year's enrollment figures.
Roughly 9.2 million people selected plans or were automatically enrolled through HealthCare.gov, used by 39 states, during last year's three-month enrollment period.
