(Image: CMS)
HealthCare.gov may end up with about as many consumer users in 2019 as it has had in 2018, thanks to a big rush for coverage during the last week of the 2019 open enrollment period.
HealthCare.gov started the 2019 open enrollment period Nov. 1 and ended it Saturday.
During the first six weeks of that seven-week period, 4.1 million people signed up for coverage. The number of signups was about 12% lower than it was during the first six weeks of the enrollment period for 2018 coverage.
But the number of people who signed up for coverage during the seventh week of the 2019 enrollment period climbed to 4.3 million, up 4% from the number who signed up during the seventh week of the 2018 enrollment period, according to a new batch of signup data from HealthCare.gov's managers.
The seventh-week surge helped bring the signup total for the entire 2019 enrollment period to 8.5 million. The surge narrowed the signup gap between the 2018 enrollment period and the 2019 enrollment period to about 4.2%.
During the first six weeks of the enrollment period, renewal activity for people who already have individual major medical coverage purchased through HealthCare.gov was stronger than efforts to attract consumers new to the HealthCare.gov system.
That pattern held in the seventh week, too.
