US releases low 2015 Obamacare enrollment forecast

Credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

Arminda Murillo, 54, reads a leaflet at a health insurance enrollment event in Cudahy, California March 27, 2014.

An Obama administration report, released just before the start of 2015 open enrollment on Saturday, also reduced the official count of 2014 enrollment to 7.1 million people as of Oct. 15, from 7.3 million in August. The change resulted in part from 112,000 people losing coverage because of unresolved application issues involving their citizenship or immigration status.

CBO, which has been a leading enrollment forecaster for Obamacare up to now, predicted that the private insurance marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care Act, better known as 'Obamacare,' would reach a mature 25 million paying customers by 2017.

But Monday's first-of-its-kind prediction by the Obama administration assumes that the marketplaces could take two years longer to mature, partly as a result of a slower than anticipated shift to Obamacare coverage by people who now obtain benefits from employers or through private plans sold outside the marketplaces.

Officials also said that 120,000 U.S. households now face higher coverage costs, including the potential loss of federal subsidies, because of unresolved 2014 application issues involving income levels.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Susan Heavey)

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