Report: 29,000 enroll in healthcare in two days

HealthCare.gov netted more enrollments on Sunday and Monday than during the entire month of October, when the site was mired in technical glitches, according to a report.

About 29,000 people signed up for health insurance on Dec. 1 and 2, after the administration declared the website vastly improved for most users, a source familiar with the program told Politico.

{mosads}If accurate, the figure confirms that ObamaCare’s main enrollment website is working significantly better than it was just weeks ago. About 27,000 people selected a policy in October through HealthCare.gov.

Some user reports have indicated that HealthCare.gov is on the mend. The administration is eager to promote this narrative, but it is difficult to independently verify the site’s overall status.

Federal health officials are releasing enrollment figures on a monthly basis, and while an increase in sign-ups is widely anticipated, they would not confirm the numbers in Wednesday’s report.

“We’re currently scrubbing enrollment numbers right now,” said Health and Human Services Department spokeswoman Joanne Peters. “But, we certainly expect enrollment to increase given the technical improvements we’ve made to the site.”

The source said that the 29,000 enrollees were people who chose plans but had not necessarily paid their first premium. The administration is counting these individuals as enrolled in their figures.

The surge in sign-ups would be welcome news for the White House after weeks of political backlash over problems with HealthCare.gov. Yet insurers are still raising concerns about the site’s back end, which reportedly continues to transmit flawed data about plan applicants.