ACA enrollment lagging further behind past years

Roughly 3.6 million people have signed up for coverage through HealthCare.gov so far, putting enrollment on track to finish far short of last year's totals.

The numbers that matter: There’s just one week left in this year’s enrollment window. And though HealthCare.gov usually sees a surge of applications at the end of the sign-up window, enrollment would need to more than double, by Dec. 15, to match the 9 million people who signed up through the federal marketplace last year.

The bottom line: That’s unlikely — and in fact, the last-minute surge was already well under way at this point in the last enrollment period.