Over 450,000 Have Signed Up for Health Insurance

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Health Overhaul Version 2
This image shows the website for updated HealthCare,gov, a federal government website managed by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service. The Obama administration has unveiled an updated version of HealthCare.gov. It’s got some improvements and some challenges. There’s also at least one early mistake. (AP Photo)Associated Press
By Maya Rhodan

Over 450,000 people signed up for health insurance via the healthcare.gov website during the first week of open enrollment, the Obama administration said Wednesday.

The Department of Health and Human Services says 462, 125 people signed up for insurance between Nov. 15 and Nov. 21. Nearly half of those enrollees were new customers, Vox reports.

Last year during the first month of the rocky rollout of Obama’s signature health care law, only about 106,000 people signed up for insurance.

Enrollment via the Spanish-language version of healthcare.gov, however, lags. The site has had about 95,000 users since the second enrollment period began.

The release of figures after the first week is a part of an Obama Administration effort to be more transparent about how many people are signing up for insurance via the health care marketplace.

[Vox]

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