Health Exchange Enrollment Jumps, Even as G.O.P. Pledges Repeal

WASHINGTON — About 6.4 million people have signed up for health insurance next year under the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration said Wednesday, as people rushed to purchase plans regardless of Republican promises that the law will be repealed within months.

The new sign-ups — an increase of 400,000 over a similar point last year — mean the health care coverage of millions of consumers could be imperiled by one of the first legislative actions of Donald J. Trump’s presidency. Hundreds of thousands of other people who took no action will be automatically re-enrolled by the federal government in the same or similar plans, officials said, and their coverage could be threatened as well. Consumers still have until the end of January to enroll.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, said the number of sign-ups was remarkable in view of “headwinds” created by premium increases for 2017 and by the uncertainty of the entire health law after Mr. Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

Americans remain divided over President Obama’s most significant legislative achievement, even as 20 million people have gained coverage under the law and the percentage of those without insurance has dropped to record lows. Mr. Trump and Republican leaders of the House and the Senate have vowed to repeal the 2010 law as one of the first legislative actions of the Trump era.


To lay the political groundwork, Republicans have portrayed the law as collapsing under its own weight, unable to hold down health costs or provide the insurance choices its advocates promised.

But the 6.4 million signing up on HealthCare.gov through Monday could undermine the argument that the law is in free fall. The five states with the most people enrolling for coverage on the site through Monday were Florida, with 1.3 million plan selections, Texas (776,000), North Carolina (369,000), Georgia (352,000) and Pennsylvania (291,000). Mr. Trump carried all those states.

And the 6.4 million figure does not include data from states like New York and California that use their own digital marketplaces.

Democrats say that repealing the law will cause chaos and catastrophe, jeopardizing coverage for people who use HealthCare.gov and millions more who have been able to enroll in Medicaid. Whether those consumers like their coverage enough to fight for it and to resist Republican efforts to undo the law is unclear. But the enrollment figures will provide a rallying cry for Democrats intent on saving it.

“Enrollment is running ahead of last year,” Ms. Burwell said. “Today’s enrollment numbers confirm that doomsday predictions about the marketplace are wrong.”

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