Numbers released by the Obama administration show enrollment in health exchanges edged up in November, but the uptake remains far short of the administration's initial targets.
Roughly 264,000 people signed up for private insurance coverage last month through the federal and state exchanges, according to data from the Health and Human Services Department. That brings the total to about 364,000 for October and November.
Scott Horsley detailed the enrollment numbers in an earlier post. But if you're more visually inclined, take a look at a couple of charts we put together.
You can explore the cumulative state-by-state enrollment totals for the months of October and November. In the top chart, you can check out the raw enrollment numbers. We've color-coded the bars in the chart so you can see how enrollment went over two months.
Below, take a look at the cumulative enrollment numbers by the percentage of a state's uninsured population. With a few exceptions, such as Maryland and Hawaii, the states with their own exchanges outperform those using the federally facilitated exchange.
Enrollment has surged since Dec. 1, when HHS announced that the site is working smoothly for the "vast majority of users." The numbers show about 29,000 enrollments on Dec. 1 and 2, but those figures aren't in the latest report.
Because HealthCare.gov was barely functioning in October and much of November, the administration is falling far short of the 3.3 million people it had projected would sign up by the end of December.
But officials said they're still confident they'll reach the goal of 7 million sign-ups by the end of March, when open enrollment closes. "We think we're on track and we will reach the total that we thought. We're only 2 1/2 months into a six-month open enrollment period," said Michael Hash, the director of HHS's Office of Health Reform.
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