Obamacare Sign-Ups Close to Last Year

More than 4 million people signed up for insurance coverage on Obamacare as of Dec. 10, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Wednesday.

Of the 4 million sign-ups that have taken place since Nov. 1, 1.1 million have been from new customers, 2.9 million have been people renewing coverage. The sign-up period has been open for six weeks.

About 150,000 more people had signed up for coverage in the first six weeks of enrollment last year. But that period was two days longer than the six week enrollment period this year. When comparing sign-ups day-by-day, CMS reports there are more than 250,000 enrollees now compared to last year.

The announcement comes ahead of Thursday’s deadline to sign up for coverage. CMS officials said Monday and Tuesday of this week have been two of the busiest days of any open enrollment period, with more than 700,000 sign-ups.

“Momentum is building,” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said in a statement Wednesday.

But more applications have been submitted so far this year, with 6.4 million consumers submitting applications compared to 6.1 million applications submitted at this time last year.

This year, HHS tried to make consumers aware of the subsidies they are eligible for, an effort to counter news of significant premium increases in some parts of the country.

President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have promised to repeal Obamacare in early 2017, but say they want to maintain coverage for people until a replacement is passed. Regardless, the Obama administration continued to push consumers to sign up for coverage this year, with President Barack Obama using his weekly address last weekend to encourage enrollments ahead of Thursday’s deadline.

Update: This story has been updated to reflect day-by-day enrollment between 2015 and 2016.