New Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act programs have helped more than 7 percent of U.S. residents get health coverage this year.
Charles Gaba, a closely watched Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act plan enrollment tracker, is reporting at ACASignups.net that he believes at least 6.6 million people have paid for commercial "qualified health plan" coverage through the exchanges or will soon pay for the coverage.
Gaba gets the QHP enrollment figure by taking the government QHP selection totals and assuming 93 percent of the QHP selectors will eventually pay for coverage.
Analysts at the Rand Corp. have estimated, based on survey totals, that another 9 million people have bought QHPs outside the exchange system, Gaba says.
Some have questioned whether Rand's 9 million off-exchange QHP enrollee figure can be correct, but Gaba says the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association alone has confirmed that its member plans have enrolled at least 1.7 million people in QHPs outside the exchange system.
