ACA sign-up goal unlikely to be reached

While the old saying "anything is possible" often holds true, the chances that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will reach its enrollment goal are few and far between, based on estimates of how many people have to sign up before the deadline.

Approximately 42 people every minute have to enroll through the health insurance marketplace in order to reach the 7 million benchmark HHS and the Obama administration said "success would look like" in October, The Associated Press reported.

Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the HHS, told NBC News on Sept. 30 that by the end of March, health officials would have at least 7 million people signed up through the state or federal exchanges. However, with 80 percent of the enrollment period now passed, approximately 4.2 million have selected plans, according to recent figures released by HHS.

Broken down further, one person every 1.4 seconds has to secure a health policy in the remaining days of March to hit the targeted goal.

March 31 is the open-enrollment deadline for the ACA. Those who don't have a plan by then may be required to pay a $95 penalty or 1 percent of their annual income.