More than 2 million sign up during ObamaCare special enrollment period

Administration officials announced Wednesday that more than 2 million people have signed up for health insurance during the special enrollment period using both federal and state marketplaces.

The new sign-ups pushed the number of Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollees to a record high, though Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said the final enrollment count was not yet available.

“When you make coverage affordable, when you make it easy for people to enroll, they will do so,” Brooks-LaSure said.

By the numbers: A total of 1.5 million Americans have enrolled in coverage through healthcare.gov throughout the special sign-up period, while another 600,000 used the 15 state-based marketplaces, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said.

At the same time, a record 81 million people have received coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as of February.

Throughout the ongoing special enrollment period that the Biden administration opened on Feb. 15 and is slated to end on Aug. 15, health care sign-ups have swelled, after previously being open for weeks.