Nearly 1.4 million consumers signed up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act on the federal health insurance exchange during the first three weeks of open enrollment, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Dec. 10.
During open enrollment, HHS will release weekly snapshots of preliminary data drawn only from the federal exchange, or CuidadodeSalud.gov, and callers to the federal call center at 800-318-2596.
HHS will produce a more detailed report that includes data from both federal exchange as well as state-run exchanges.
The most recent snapshot report, for the period Nov. 15 – Dec. 5, showed that 48% of those signing up were new insured, while 52% were renewing their coverage.
A total 2.5 million applications were submitted online, and 1.4 million consumers selected plans.
The HealthCare.gov site was visited by more than 7.9 million users, compared to just over 153,000 for the Spanish-language CuidadodeSalude.gov site.
More than 2.5 million consumers contacted the call center. They waited an average 2 minutes and 31 seconds on hold. Callers seeking a Spanish-speaking representative waited about 9 seconds.
More than 3 million visitors used the HealthCare.gov “window shopping” tool to explore available to them. About 61,000 window shopped CuidadodeSalud.gov.
Open enrollment ends February 15, 2015. However, for coverage to begin on January 1, 2015, consumers must enroll by December 15, 2014.