The number of new customers who have submitted an application and selected a health care plan through Healthcare.gov is down by nearly 200,000 from last year, according to the latest open enrollment figures released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
There were 2,137,717 individuals who signed up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act in the first four weeks of open enrollment, which began on Nov. 1. While the number of signups is greater this year than last, there were fewer new customers buying Obamacare plans this year. The open enrollment period this year had two fewer days than last year due to a five-day week in the beginning of open enrollment.
The number of new customers purchasing Obamacare plans is down 27 percent from last year. Last year's open enrollment period attracted 714,150 new customers and this year only 519,492 new customers selected plans for the 2017 coverage year, a decline of 194,658 individuals.
"Contrary to what Obamacare supporters would have folks believe, Americans aren't signing up for Obamacare because of soaring premiums and out-of-pocket costs, fewer plan options, and provider networks that are more restrictive than ever before," said David Barnes, policy director at Generation Opportunity. "The administration can spin the law's failings by pointing to misleading enrollment numbers that don't tell the whole story, but Americans aren't buying it, just as they aren't buying Obamacare's unaffordable and low-quality plans."
There were more customers this year who renewed their health care coverage either by selecting the same plan they had, choosing a new one, or automatically re-enrolling in a health care plan. Last year, 1,326,279 customers renewed their coverage and this year that number grew to 1,618,225.
The Obama administration said in October that it would handpick plans for those who lost coverage because their insurer exited the exchanges.
"Around the second week of November, consumers whose insurers are leaving the market will get a notice that HealthCare.gov has matched them to another plan," the Associated Press reported at the time.
There were 660,658 fewer unique visitors interacting with the HealthCare.gov website during this year's open enrollment period than last year's. The number of people who window-shopped—or got price estimates before starting an application or logging into HealthCare.gov—also declined. There were 2,874,977 window shoppers last year compared to 1,681,789 that window-shopped this year, a decline of 41 percent.
"I hear from people across the country just how much coverage matters to them, so I encourage all Americans who need health insurance for 2017 to visit HealthCare.gov and check out their options," said Sylvia Burwell, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. "With plans available for less than $75 a month in premiums, 2.1 million Americans have already selected coverage through HealthCare.gov, more than had signed up at this time last year."