On Tuesday, the government sent the first of over 250,000 e-mails set to arrive in the inboxes of those people who have not been able to enroll in Obamacare. Spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Julie Bataille said that the e-mail recipients are people who got “stuck” somewhere in the enrollment system. She added that the e-mails will encourage those people to return to the site and give enrollment another try.
“The site is getting better each week, and by the end of November, the site will be moving smoothly for the majority of users,” Bataille said. Enrollment numbers will be released this week, but Bataille pointed out that everyone expects the results to be low given the history of programs like Obamacare, such as the Massachusetts healthcare program. “Given the Massachusetts experience, we expect our initial numbers will be low and grow over time,” she said.
On Monday, Avalere Health released a study that shows that 12 state exchanges have enrolled 3% of the number of people they expect to enroll over the entire six-month period. CEO of Avalere Dan Mendelson acknowledged that 3% is “less than what you want to see at this point,” but “they have time to turn this around,” he added. “They have not really started to do the major visibility and advertising push.”
