'Obamacare' enrollment rising as COVID-19 pandemic deepens

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sign-ups for “Obamacare” health insurance plans are trending more than 6% higher amid surging coronavirus cases and deepening economic misery, according to preliminary figures released Friday by the government.

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid Services, or CMS, said more than 8.2 million people had signed up through the close of open enrollment Dec. 15 in the 36 states served by the federal HealthCare.gov website.

An apples-to-apples comparison with last year's sign-ups translates to a 6.6% gain, the agency said. Unlike last year, two populous states that had used the federal website are now running their own. Numbers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania were not counted in Friday's tally from HealthCare.gov states. They'll be reported in coming weeks, along with those from other remaining states.

Created by former President Barack Obama's health law, the insurance markets offer taxpayer subsidized private plans to more than 11 million people who don’t have job-based coverage. Insurers cannot turn away customers with pre-existing medical conditions. Medicaid expansion, another component of the Affordable Care Act, covers about 12 million people.

President Donald Trump failed to repeal “Obamacare" his first year in office, an early defeat he never forgot. Although Trump has been trying to convince a skeptical Supreme Court to overturn the law in its entirety, his administration took credit Friday for what officials called a successful enrollment season.

“We’ve opened more pathways to enroll by taking advantage of private sector and people are clearly finding the coverage they need at this critical time," CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement. Nonetheless, the Trump administration ignored calls to provide a special sign-up period related to the pandemic, something...