February Health Coverage Enrollments Well Behind Target

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration said Tuesday that 943,000 people signed up last month for private health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, increasing the number of those who have selected health plans since Oct. 1 to more than 4.2 million.

The number of people picking plans was smaller in February than in December or January. But administration officials predicted a surge of applications toward the end of this month, just before the open enrollment period ends.

Of those who have signed to date, the administration said, about 25 percent were ages 18 to 34, the same proportion as in the first four months of the open enrollment period, through January.

Insurers and the White House have avidly sought young adults, saying their premium payments were needed to offset the costs of coverage for Americans who were older and presumably sicker.

The latest figures were released as the White House makes a final push to increase enrollment, which got off to a slow start because of the technical problems that crippled the federal insurance marketplace in October. Less than three weeks remain before the March 31 deadline for consumers to sign up.

Of the people who have signed up so far, the administration said, 2.6 million were in the federal insurance marketplace, and 1.6 million were in states running their own exchanges.

'Over 4.2 million Americans have signed up for affordable plans through the Marketplace,' said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services. 'Now, during this final month of open enrollment, our message to the American people is this: You still have time to get covered, but you'll want to sign up today.'

Administration officials said they were pleased with the pace of enrollment, even though the total falls short of the target initially set by the Department of Health and Human Services. In an internal memorandum in September, federal health officials said they wanted to have 5.6 million people enrolled by the end of February, with a total of seven million signed up by the end of this month.

The age profile of people signing up is somewhat older than insurers had expected. The number of people age 55 to 64 - 1.3 million -exceeds the number in the 18-to-34 age bracket, 1.1 million.

The new report does not show how many people have paid premiums, as they must do to activate coverage. Nor does it show many of those selecting health plans were previously uninsured, or how many signed up for a plan, then canceled it and chose another.

Insurers say that roughly one in five people who signed up for coverage failed to pay their January premiums. And some of those who paid and received services in January failed to pay premiums for February, putting their coverage at risk.

More than four-fifths of those choosing health plans to date - 83 percent - qualified for financial assistance to help pay their premiums, administration officials said.

People who go without insurance after March 31 may be subject to tax penalties. The Internal Revenue Service can deduct the penalties from any refunds to which taxpayers may be entitled.

Four years after it was signed by President Obama, the Affordable Care Act remains a divisive political issue, and it already figures prominently in many midterm election campaigns.

Democrats hope that public opinion will swing in favor of the law, as more people experience its benefits. But Republicans continually hammer at the law, saying it will drive up premiums, cause the cancellation of insurance policies for some families and increase costs for many businesses.

Mr. Obama has delayed many provisions of the law, reducing political risks for Democrats this fall, but guaranteeing that the law will be hotly debated for several more years at least.

The White House and its allies have been running a campaign-style effort to encourage enrollment. In recent weeks, Ms. Sebelius has been in Arizona, Florida, Texas and other states.

Brian Haile, a senior vice president of Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, said his colleagues had helped tens of thousands of people file applications for insurance subsidies or Medicaid in the last two months.

'There's a tremendous amount of confusion about the computation of penalties for people who go without insurance,' Mr. Haile said. 'While some people may be exempt and others will have a penalty as low as $95 a person, the penalty may be substantially higher, depending on your income. Many people are pleasantly surprised to find that they are eligible for free or low-cost coverage.'

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