Obamacare enrollment is expected to grow 9% to an average of 11.4 million in 2017, administration officials said Wednesday.
Enrollment next year is critical for the president’s signature health reform law, which is going through major shakeups. Large insurers, including Aetna and UnitedHealthcare, are scaling back participation, and remaining carriers are hiking premiums to stem losses from sicker-than-expected enrollees.
Some 10.4 million people were enrolled in Obamacare plans as of June 30, the administration announced. That’s down from 11.1 million at the end of March. Some 10 million are expected to be enrolled at year’s end.
People regularly move in and out of the marketplace as they gain or lose jobs, get married or divorced or have a baby, so enrollment figures change from month to month.
Aware of the importance of this coming enrollment season, which runs Nov. 1 to Jan. 31, administration officials have ramped up their outreach to the uninsured. They are particularly targeting younger, healthier Americans with social and mobile messages.
The administration expects 3.5 million uninsured people to enroll next year, and 1.1 million more to switch from individual coverage outside the Obamacare exchanges to marketplace plans. Some 9.2 million are projected to re-enroll.
