The Obama administration acknowledged on Thursday that it overcounted the total number of people signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Marilyn B. Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in September that 7.3 million people were enrolled. But Bloomberg News reported Thursday that the figure included nearly 400,000 people with stand-alone dental plans, prompting the administration to revise the enrollment figure to 6.7 million as of Oct. 15. The discrepancy was discovered by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which had asked for the enrollment records. About eight million people had signed up for health plans by May, according to the administration, but many are no longer enrolled. At the time, the Health and Human Services Department broke out the number who had signed up for dental but not medical plans, saying that 1.1 million people had done so. In a statement, the Department of Health and Human Services said it still estimated that a total of 9.1 million people would have medical coverage through the exchanges by the end of next year. “The mistake we made is unacceptable,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the department’s secretary, wrote on Twitter.
Get the latest health care news and updates for insurance brokers.
