WASHINGTON — Nearly a half-million people chose health plans through during the first week of the new open-enrollment period in the online insurance marketplace, federal health officials announced Wednesday.
The figures show that nearly half of those who have just signed up for insurance do not have coverage through the federal insurance marketplace.
That group — 48 percent of 462,000 who picked a health plan during the week that started Nov. 15 — is significant, because a major mission of the enrollment window this time is to attract uninsured Americans who did not get coverage through in its maiden year.
On the other hand, the figures indicate that few of the 6.7 million people who already have insurance through the marketplace have moved to renew it.
The report shows that the interest in — or ability to get — insurance is running ahead of the first enrollment period for , which began in October 2013 and was marred in its initial few months by computer defects.
“We are off to a solid start,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell.
Still, she and other senior federal health officials maintained a cautious tone.
“We are only 10 days in,” said Andy Slavitt of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “We still have a lot of work to do every day.”
