Carriers might have already enrolled most of the uninsureds who have the money and energy to buy coverage.
Many state-based exchanges said enrollment activity fell between December and January.
This week, analysts have published several survey reports suggesting the drop could reflect an easing of pent-up demand for coverage.
Gallup polled 1,533 adults. The percentage of uninsured adults who said they’re more likely to buy enough coverage to avoid the penalty rather than pay it fell to 55 percent in February, from 63 percent in November.
The Urban Institute, a think tank, polled 7,873 adults in December.
Nineteen percent of the uninsured adults in the Urban Institute sample said they’d tried looking for coverage through a public exchange, and 33 percent said they’d shop through an exchange later.
But 25 percent said they had no interest in using an exchange, and 23 percent said they hadn’t heard about the exchanges at all.
The consultants at McKinsey conducted a series of four consumer surveys, with sample sizes ranging from 1,040 to 2,096.