With one week to go until the December 23 Obamacare enrollment deadline, all eyes are on the White House to see whether HealthCare.gov’s touted website fixes have brought the program anywhere near its seven million-person enrollment goal by March 31, 2014.
The Obama Administration extended the deadline for Americans wishing for health care coverage to begin on January 1 from December 15 to midnight December 23. The looming deadline marks the near midpoint for Obamacare sign-ups.
To remain on pace, Obamacare should have signed up nearly 3.5 million people. As of November 30, however, the government said just 365,000 people had placed a health insurance plan in a shopping cart; Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she does not know how many of those individuals have actually activated their plan by submitting their first month’s payment.
Back-end computer problems have further complicated Obamacare signups. HHS says at least 15,000 Americans who signed up through the website were lost due to computer malfunctions, and as many as 35,000 applications are riddled with errors, reports ABC News.
Based on current figures, 45 states have not even hit 10% of their overall Obamacare enrollment goals.