The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) public exchange system helped 8.02 million people sign up for private “qualified health plan” (QHP) coverage by April 19, up from 7 million March 31.
The individual QHP open enrollment period started Oct. 1 in most of the country and originally was supposed to end March 31. Many exchanges offered enrollment period extensions for most or all consumers in their markets.
The public exchange programs run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) increased the number of plan selectors 14 percent between March 31 and April 19, to 4.8 million, according to a new HHS exchange enrollment report.
The state-based exchanges increased their enrollment 11 percent over that period, to 2.3 million.
PPACA critics have blasted HHS for failing to publish information about the number of enrollees who actually paid for coverage, rather than simply signing up for coverage.