Administration: 1M more Americans sign up for health insurance, but enrollment is short of target

Almost a million more people enrolled in insurance coverage under the health law during the month of February, bringing the total to about 4.2 million, according to a report released Tuesday.   

The New York Times: Health Care Enrollment Falls Short Of Goal, With Deadline Approaching
Almost a million people signed up last month for private health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, federal officials said Tuesday, bringing the total to date to 4.2 million but leaving the Obama administration well short of its original goal, with less than a month to go before the end of the open enrollment period (Pear, 3/11).

Kaiser Health News: Nearly 1 Million More Sign Up For Obamacare Plans In February
About 4.2 million Americans have signed up for private health plans through the end of February via the online insurance marketplaces established by the federal health law -- with enrollment jumping by nearly 1 million people last month, the Obama administration said Tuesday (Galewitz, 3/11).

Los Angeles Times: More Than 4.2 Million People Sign Up For Obamacare
The new enrollment report confirms that the administration and its allies probably will fall well short of the 7 million sign-ups that they had hoped to get in 2014. Administration officials would not even say if they believe they will enroll 6 million people, as projected by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (Levey, 3/11).

The Washington Post: Pace Of Health Exchange Enrollment Slows In February, Figures Show
The pace at which Americans signed up for health plans slowed last month in the fledgling federal and state insurance marketplaces, according to new government figures showing that slightly fewer than 1 million people enrolled in February. The Obama administration said 943,000 Americans selected health plans, compared to 1.2 million in January. Overall, enrollment stood at 4.2 million as of the end of last month (Somashekhar and Goldstein, 3/11).

NPR: Young People Lag Behind In Health Insurance Enrollment
While the 943,000 people who signed up in February through the federal HealthCare.gov site or a state health exchange is slightly less than the original February projection of about 1.3 million, the exchanges have mostly put behind them their very sorry starts, when enrollments were often counted in the tens or hundreds (Rovner, 3/11).

The Wall Street Journal: More Americans Buy Insurance Under Health Care Law
The total signals the administration has been able to move beyond the technical issues of the HealthCare.gov site that shut out many would-be users in the fall. But the administration's effort to boost enrollment by the March 31 deadline still faces stiff challenges stemming from last year's problems. Supporters are ramping up those efforts, including deploying President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama to promote the law (Radnofsky and Meckler, 3/11).

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Steady Health Care Sign-Ups May Miss Goal
The Obama administration said Tuesday it's making steady progress on health care sign-ups, but the White House needs something close to a miracle to meet its goal of enrolling 6 million people by the end of this month. It could happen with a sustained surge in consumer demand and a foolproof website. But they're not seeing it yet, and time is running out (3/11).

USA Today: 4.2 Million Enrolled In Insurance Through February
The latest statistics show the gulf between the original estimate of 7 million new customers from the Congressional Budget Office and how many people have come forward to comply with the requirement that those without insurance buy it or pay a fine. They provide mixed messages in terms of who is buying insurance and how quickly. For example, 942,000 people signed up for private plans in February, a drop from 1,146,000 in January. That's about 3,300 a day fewer in February. More than 1 million people signed up in both December and January (Kennedy, 3/11).

Politico: Administration: 4.2 Million People Signed Up For Obamacare Plans Through February
Yet the pace of new sign-ups wasn't appreciably stronger than in January, when 1.1 million people selected health plans. That appears to be largely because there were fewer days in February than there were in the previous month's report, but it's an explanation that doesn't help support messaging about major momentum (Cheney, 3/11).

Reuters: Obamacare Enrollment In Private Coverage Rises to 4.2 Million People 
The Obama administration said on Tuesday that 4.2 million people have signed up for private health insurance under Obamacare, and indicated that total enrollment could surpass a 6 million-enrollee forecast by the end of March. New enrollment data for a five-month period from October 1 through March 1 came out as the administration threw its public relations campaign into overdrive, with President Barack Obama appearing for an interview on the comedy website, "Funny or Die," in a direct appeal to the site's audience of young adults (Morgan, 3/11).

ABC News: Obamacare Enrollment Over 4 Million, Still Missing Critical Millennials
Less than three weeks remain in the open enrollment period for the healthcare insurance marketplace commonly known as Obamacare, but according to new statistics from the administration today a critical age group still isn't turning out in needed numbers. As of March 1 over 4.2 million have found insurance coverage through the online state and federal exchanges mandated by the Affordable Care Act, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. It's a 22 percent increase over January's 3.3 million and within possible striking distance of the 6 million estimated by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office to enroll before the March 31 deadline. But persons aged 18-34 represent only a quarter of the enrolled, down two points from a month ago (Larotonda, 3/11). 

Fox News: New Report Shows Administration Lagging Far Behind ObamaCare Enrollment Goals
In the final stretch of enrolling Americans in ObamaCare, the administration is lagging far behind its own goals -- leaving uncertain whether the program is attracting enough people for the system to work.  The Department of Health and Human Services reported Tuesday that more than 940,000 people signed up in February, bringing the total enrollment number to 4.2 million. That's well short of the unofficial goal of signing up 7 million by the end of open enrollment on March 31. The numbers renewed calls from Republicans to push off the looming penalty for not buying insurance. And they revived accusations that the administration still is not telling the whole story behind those numbers (3/12).

NBC News: No Last-Minute Health Insurance Pile-On Yet
If people are waiting until the last minute to buy health insurance on the new Obamacare marketplaces, they really are waiting until the last possible minute. The latest official government figures show that 4.2 million people bought health insurance on the online exchanges as of March 1. Just three weeks remain until the March 31 deadline to buy insurance on the exchanges. The Obama administration had been hoping for the 7 million people that the Congressional Budget Office had forecast would sign up in this first year. The CBO later revised that down to 6 million. "We expect that even more will sign up as we approach the March 31st deadline," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters on a conference call (Fox, 3/11).