(ABC News) — “Andy Slavitt, the former Acting Administrator for CMS under Obama, who has been a critic of the Trump administration’s position on the Affordable Care Act, tweeted that he was “blown away” by the 2018 numbers.”
Despite a shortened Healthcare.gov Open Enrollment period and cuts to outreach funding by the Trump administration, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma announced 2018 Open Enrollment numbers that are only down slightly from last year’s numbers.
Around 8.8 million people signed up for coverage on Healthcare.gov’s federal exchanges, according to a Thursday tweet by Verma, nearly as many enrollments as for the previous year.
The 8.8 million number only reflects sign-ups by people in the 39 states using Healthcare.gov. Some very large states that operate their own exchanges, like California, have enrollment periods that won’t finish until the end of January.
Click to read more. By Meridith McGraw, Dec 21, 2017.