*A record number of participants––more than 200,000––signed up for Obamacare on Nov. 1, the day open enrollment began, The Hill reports.
The surge in sign-ups, which was confirmed by an administration official, comes despite the Trump administration’s cutbacks in outreach and advertising.
According to The Hill, the administration “cut the outreach budget by 90 percent and cut back on grants to outside groups, called navigators, that help people enroll.”
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One source close to the process told The Hill that more than 200,000 people selected a plan for 2018 on Nov. 1, compared with about 100,000 last year. More than 1 million people visited healthcare.gov that day, compared to about 750,000 last year, the source said.
“The first few days of Open Enrollment for the Federal Health Insurance Exchange went smoothly,” said a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the health-care law.
“The website performed optimally and consumers easily accessed enrollment tools to compare plans and prices.”
Sign-ups early in the enrollment season are often people renewing their coverage, not new enrollees.
“Standard & Poor’s forecasted last week that enrollment could drop by as much as 1.6 million people below last year’s level of 12.2 million signups, in part due to uncertainty from the administration’s actions.”
“The enrollment period is also about half as long this year, ending Dec. 15.”
Trump’s administration cut the outreach budget by 90 percent and cut back on grants to outside groups that help people enroll.
Donald Trump did not comment on the record number of Obamacare signups.
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