Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
HHS Lowers Estimate For Health Law Sign-Ups
The Obama administration is playing the expectations game when it comes to enrollment numbers for Obamacares second season. In its first projection Monday, the administration lowballed the number of Americans who it predicts will sign up for the exchanges that form the foundation of the health care law estimating that 9 million to 9.9 million people would enroll by the end of 2015. (Pradhan, 11/10)
Millions fewer people will enroll in private health plans under the Affordable Care Act next year than the Congressional Budget Office had predicted, the Obama administration said Monday. The developments are the latest sign that the law, which Democrats passed in 2010 to provide near-universal health insurance, is struggling to reach that goal quickly. Attracting new enrollees to the health laws insurance exchanges has proven more difficult than advocates had predicted, and a slice of those who do sign up for plans havent kept up with premiums. (Radnofsky, 11/10)
The new estimate appeared to be part of an effort by federal officials to lower public expectations, so the goal would be easier to meet and to surpass. In addition, the new number could indicate that administration officials believe it will be difficult to find and enroll many of the uninsured while retaining those who signed up in the last year. (Pear, 11/10)
The Obama administration has substantially scaled back estimates of how many people will sign up for insurance in 2015 through the federal healthcare law, projecting that millions fewer Americans will use marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act. Instead of 13 million customers in the second year of the marketplaces, as had been predicted, the Department of Health and Human Services now says 9 million to 9.9 million people probably will get coverage by the end of next year. (Levey, 11/10)
With sign-up season launching this weekend, officials sharply dialed down expectations Monday for the second year of President Barack Obamas health insurance law. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said shes aiming to have 9.1 million paying customers enrolled in 2015 for subsidized private coverage through HealthCare.gov and state insurance markets. ... After a chaotic rollout last year, Obama's signature program faces an even tougher test this time around. The public remains skeptical and Congress is now fully in the hands of Republicans committed to repeal it. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/10)
HealthCare.gov and state exchanges went live Sunday night for consumers who want to browse and compare plans before open enrollment starts. Once people start buying plans on Saturday, Department of Health & Human Services officials said they are expecting just 9 million to 9.9 million enrollees for 2015, far below the 13 million the CBO projected would have insurance and pay their premiums through the federal and state marketplaces by 2015. CBO's estimates were made before final data on 2014's open enrollment were completed. CBO also projected enrollment in exchanges would reach 25 million by 2017. That was based on CBO's assumption that along with the 13 million people in 2015, there would be 24 million signing up for 2016, and 25 million in 2017. (O'Donnell, 11/10)
Senior administration officials say theres mixed evidence and considerable uncertainty about the CBOs expectation of a large two-year movement away from job-based coverage and individual coverage purchased outside the marketplace. Those uncertainties and the history of slower enrollment growth in programs like Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program suggest it could take four to five years until 2019 for the state and federal marketplaces ramp up to 25 million enrollees. (Pugh, 11/10)
The federal government expects only about 9 million people to sign up for health insurance on the new online exchanges this year four million fewer than projected just this spring. (Fox, 11/10)
The Obama administration has substantially cut estimates of the number of people who will sign up for insurance coverage in 2015 through the federal health law, projecting that millions fewer consumers will use marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act. The Department of Health and Human Services had predicted 13 million people, including Marylanders, would get coverage from the marketplaces through next year. On Monday the agency revised that figure to fewer than 10 million. (Cohn and Levey, 11/10)
