‘Obamacare’ enrollment may hit initial goal

The first yearly sign-up period for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) closes Monday, and early returns suggest that the Obama administration may reach its initial goal of 7 million people registered despite a website that struggled to cope in the early stages after launch.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that 6 million people had already enrolled in the program commonly known as “Obamacare” and about 1 million people a day continue to visit Healthcare.gov. Meanwhile, the White House said Monday afternoon that enrollment numbers would be "substantially larger than 6 million." 

Avik Roy, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and Zack Cooper, an assistant professor at Yale University’s School of Public Health, sat down with Al Jazeera America’s Jonathan Betz to discuss the rollout’s recovery and several outstanding policy issues surrounding the new health law on the regular Sunday night segment The Week Ahead.

“There was testimony before Congress as late as November and December that the administration hadn’t even built the systems for allowing people to pay for their insurance plans on Healthcare.gov, so to get to where they are today from where they were before is great,” Roy said, while pointing to long-term concerns — including cost and impact — facing the program.

The rollout of the Affordable Care Act also looks different state to state, according to the panelists. Twenty-seven states allowed the federal government to handle their exchanges; whereas 16 states and Washington, D.C. opted to run their own. According to Cooper, Connecticut has handled implementation of the ACA in a way that encourages other states to innovate.

“Certain states are doing a better job than others, but that’s actually not a bad thing,” said Cooper, who suggested that these disparities could lead to more creativity. “One of the things we see in Connecticut are these sort of Apple stores for health insurance where they have literally set up shops for you to come and buy insurance.”

The panelists both brought up cost as a major concern going forward with the program. Roy pointed to a rise in premiums, which he said rose 41 percent in 2013 for people shopping for coverage on their own.

Cooper responded that the statistics on rising premiums are misleading and cheaper alternatives, including catastrophic plans — ones that require the individual to bear the brunt of all medical costs up to a certain amount — exist.

“Some states are going up, some are going down,” he added.