(Bloomberg) — More than half a million people signed up for Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchange health-insurance plans during the second week of enrollment for 2016 coverage, which gave the exchange system a faster start than it had last year.
A total of 534,778 people picked plans through the federally run HealthCare.gov exchange plan enrollment system during the week that ended Nov. 14, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which runs the HealthCare.gov sign-up website.
About 300,000 individuals picked health plans in the second week of the exchange plan open enrollment period last year. The second week of the open enrollment period for 2015 coverage included the Thanksgiving holiday.
The second-week activity brings the total signed up for 2016 coverage through HealthCare.gov to about 1.1 million, CMS said in a statement.
