Roughly 106,185 people signed up for Obamacare through the federal and state-run exchanges in October, according to official numbers released Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
This figure is well below the White House’s initial estimates of 500,000 for the month of October.
Approximately 26,794 people enrolled in Obamacare through the error-riddled multimillion-dollar healthcare.gov website.
Well aware of the dismal federal exchange numbers, the Obama administration spent much of Monday and Tuesday laying the groundwork for the bad news.
“I can guarantee you the number that is released will be lower than we had hoped and anticipated because of the problems with the website, and that is why it is so important to focus our energies on fixing the problems,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday.
Carney said Wednesday he hadn’t discussed the numbers yet with President Barack Obama.
“No one will be satisfied with the numbers because they will be below what we sought,” Carney said.
At a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Wednesday, U.S. lawmakers failed in their repeated attempts to get those responsible for healthcare.gov to give a hard date for when the site will be functioning. As of this writing, it is unclear when the website will be fully operational.
“This report is a symbol of the failure of the president’s health care law. It is a rolling calamity that must be scrapped,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said of the “sign up” figures shortly after they were released.
This is a breaking story. Updates will be added.
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