First health insurance enrollment period sees customers in the millions

During the first enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) insurance marketplaces, more than 1.1 million Americans applied for health insurance coverage through the federal marketplace, according to The Washington Post. The Obama administration reported that more than 975,000 of those enrollees signed up in December alone. 

"It looks like current enrollment is around 2 million despite all the issues," Dan Mendelson, CEO of market analysis firm Avalere Health, told The Associated Press in response to the influx of shoppers. "It was a very impressive showing for December."

Those figures also include customers who applied at the 11th hour, as the administration extended the coverage deadline to midnight Christmas Eve, rather than the previous extension to Dec. 23. 

State-run exchanges, whose technical glitches mirrored those experienced by users of the Healthcare.gov site, ultimately covered more than 850,000 customers according to the AP. 

Although the new healthcare exchange marketplace at both federal and state levels have seen vast improvements since their Oct. 1 rollout, the figures still fall significantly short of the Department of Health and Human Service's estimate of 3.3 million enrollees by the end of the first enrollment period. 

Consumers who purchased plans by the Dec. 24 deadline should receive coverage by New Year's Day as long as they've met their initial premiums with their insurers, the AP reported.