Officials Happy With California Health Exchange Enrollment Rate So Far

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — Despite low enrollment and website issues involving the Affordable Care Act on the federal level, state insurance exchanges in California and other states said they are happy with the enrollment numbers so far.

In California, about 31,000 people enrolled for coverage through the state's health insurance exchange, Covered California, during October.

"In October, the vast majority of enrollment was self-service online or by phone," said Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee. "What we're seeing now is enrollment happening in communities, working with private insurance agents and with California's certified enrollment counselors and other parts of the nation with navigators."

Lee said another 29,000 people enrolled between November 1st and the 12th.

Kevin Counihan with Access Health Connecticut said these early numbers are not necessarily an indicator of how enrollment will go overall.

"We all know that there has been just a lot of consumer confusion. This, in my view at least, personally is a three to four year implementation. I think we all just have to be careful about drawing too many inferences only because it's so early in the game," he said.

Nationally, about 106,000 people had enrolled for coverage through health care exchanges by the end of October.

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