Early enrollment numbers far below administration targets

The projections, which put the total number of enrollees so far at fewer than 50,000 people, is just a fraction of the tally the Obama administration initially was hoping for.

The Wall Street Journal: HealthCare.gov Enrollment Falls Far Short Of Target
Fewer than 50,000 people had successfully navigated the troubled federal health-care website and enrolled in private insurance plans as of last week, two people familiar with the matter said, citing internal government data. The figure is a fraction of the Obama administration's target of 500,000 enrollees for October. The early tally for the HealthCare.gov site, which launched Oct. 1, worries health insurers that are counting on higher enrollment to make their plans profitable (Weaver, Martin and Radnofsky, 11/11).

The Washington Post: About 40,000 Americans Are Said To Have Signed Up For Plans On Healthcare.gov
Roughly 40,000 Americans have signed up for private insurance through the flawed federal online insurance marketplace since it opened six weeks ago, according to two people with access to the figures. That amount is a tiny fraction of the total projected enrollment for the 36 states where the federal government is running the online health-care exchange, indicating the slow start to the president's initiative. The first concrete evidence of the popularity -; and accessibility -; of the new federal insurance exchange emerged as the White House has been preparing to release this week the first official tally of how many people have chosen coverage using the Web site, HealthCare.gov (Goldstein and Kliff, 11/11).

NPR: The First Estimate On Insurance Signups Is Pretty Darned Small
The Obama administration later this week will issue much anticipated enrollment numbers for the first month of the Affordable Care Act. But Monday afternoon the Wall Street Journal reported that fewer than 50,000 people have signed up for health insurance in the federal health exchange the during October. Even with the administration's efforts to lowball expectations in recent days, that's a pretty small number. And the while the White House won't confirm it, it's not specifically denying it, either (Rovner, 11/11).

Politico: Early Reports Show Obamacare Enrollment Low
About 40,000 to 50,000 people have enrolled in private health care plans using HealthCare.gov -; a range far short of White House hopes, according to new numbers reported by the Wall Street Journal Monday. That figure does not include people who signed up using state exchanges. Avalere Healthcare, a consulting firm, estimated Monday that about 49,000 people had successful enrolled in insurance in 12 of the 15 states running their own insurance exchange. The largest state exchange, California, has not released numbers (Cheney, 11/12).

Reuters: Initial Obamacare Enrollment Estimates Far Short Of Targets: Reports
Initial enrollment estimates for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform program show participation is falling far short of expectations, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, raising pressure on the White House to get its rollout back on track. Fewer than 50,000 Americans were able to sign up for new Obamacare health insurance plans in October through the error-plagued HealthCare.gov website, below the federal government's target, the newspaper reported on Monday, citing two people familiar with the matter. The data is from 36 states (Humer, 11/11).

Reuters: State Obamacare Exchanges Enroll 3 Pct Of Target So Far – Report
President Barack Obama's healthcare reform has reached only about 3 percent of its enrollment target for 2014 in 12 U.S. states where new online health insurance marketplaces are mostly working smoothly, a report released on Monday said. States with functioning exchanges have signed up 49,100 people compared with the 1.4 million people expected to be enrolled for 2014, according to the report by healthcare research and consultancy firm Avalere Health (Humer, 11/11). 

The Fiscal Times: Low Obamacare Enrollment More Proof Of A 'Disaster'
Robert Laszewski, a consultant to many major insurance companies, said in an interview that about 50,000 people have signed up for coverage in the 36 states that have federally designed insurance markets – or about 10 percent of the overall goal for the first month. That figure closely matches the 40,000 to 50,000 enrollments reported by The Wall Street Journal on Monday afternoon. Laszewski based his estimate on the number of completed transactions between individuals and their families and insurance companies (Pianin and Ehley, 11/12).

Bloomberg: Obamacare Debut Falls Short in Threat to Health Exchanges
The number of people enrolled in private insurance plans through Obamacare's federal and state exchanges may total less than 100,000, a lower-than-projected tally that could threaten the program's viability unless the U.S. can repair its flawed exchange website. Officials are set to report numbers this week for both the federal exchange and the 14 sites run independently by the states. While there was an early U.S. goal of about 800,000 sign-ups nationally for the first two months, health officials have recently said they anticipated lower initial enrollment that would increase over time (Wayne & Nussbaum, 11/12).

The Hill: ACA Stats Include Expanded Enrollee Tally
The Obama administration will count individuals who have selected a healthcare plan but not yet sent in their first payment when releasing a count of enrollees in the new healthcare exchanges, an administration official told The Washington Post on Monday. That decision should boost what are still expected to be a paltry number of early enrollees in the embattled ObamaCare plans (Sink, 11/11).