Policy

HHS downsizes projections for federal health exchange this year

Officials at the U.S. Health and Human Services Department are predicting a significant reduction in […]

Officials at the U.S. Health and Human Services Department are predicting a significant reduction in the amount of new enrollees through the federal health exchange, Healthcare.gov, from 13 million predicted by the Congressional Budget Office down to between 9 and 9.9 million.

According to a memo released yesterday by HHS, the possible drop in new sign-ups stems from a slower-than-expected change in the health insurance marketplace, scaling down the estimate from the CBO that said 25 million individuals would have enrolled by 2016.

Specifically, HHS anticipates the number of enrollments through employer-sponsored and non-exchange plans in the individual market to slow down or remain comparatively unstable.

The number of individuals enrolled last year was also slightly downgraded, from 7.3 million to 7.1 million. Currently, about 32 million individuals still don’t have health insurance in the U.S., which equals a reduction of 25 percent since the federal and state-run exchanges opened a year ago.

Among the remaining uninsured, about 15 million are eligible to purchase health plans through exchanges.

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