(Bloomberg) -- Ten days before the deadline to get health insurance through Obamacare, 2.84 million people have signed up through U.S.-run marketplaces, the government said Wednesday.
During the week that ended Dec. 5, the U.S. said that 804,338 people choose plans -- the biggest single week of sign- ups since the markets opened on Nov. 1. Millions more are expected to be enrolled when people who had coverage for 2015 are automatically renewed this month, and when state-run markets, including California and New York, report their totals.
“We are now seeing a surge of interest as we get closer to the deadline,” Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday. The deadline to sign up for coverage starting on Jan. 1 is Dec. 15.
The U.S. has said it hopes to have about 10 million people enrolled in individual marketplace plans by the end of next year, up from a 2015 year-end projection of 9.1 million. Obamacare set up marketplaces to buy coverage and offers some people subsidies to help them afford it.
