Dec 7, 2017 - Health

Trump strategy working: ACA enrollment falling

At the end of last week, with 13 days left to go in open enrollment, roughly 3.6 million people had signed up for coverage through HealthCare.gov. About 5.6 million more would need to sign up by Dec. 15 to match last year's enrollment totals. That is almost certainly not going to happen.

Quick take: Of course, Trump's cuts to enrollment outreach are also a major factor here.

Note: Data includes partial weeks. The 2018 open enrollment window is Nov. 1 to Dec. 15, 2017. The 2017 window was Nov. 1, 2016 to Jan. 31, 2017; Data: Artificial Intelligence Index; Chart: Chris Canipe / Axios

Don't forget: Enrollment is down this year, in part because open enrollment is shorter this year. But cutting the sign-up window to six weeks was initially the Obama administration's idea — it had proposed switching over to a Nov. 1–Dec. 15 window next year but President Trump moved that timeline up to this year.

Insurers also liked the idea of a shorter enrollment period, hoping it would stop people from waiting until they got sick to buy coverage.

Go deeper