- More Than 600,000 Consumers Select ACA Plans at Start of Enrollment, CMS Says Washington Post by Juliet Eilperin and Amy Goldstein — More than 600,000 Americans signed up for insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act during the first four days of the new enrollment season, according to federal figures that signal a brisk start despite Republicans' efforts to dismantle the law. Some 601,462 Americans chose a health plan from Nov. 1 to4 in states relying on the federal exchange, the figures released Thursday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show. While CMS officials did not provide a direct comparison with any of the four previous enrollment periods, administration officials said that more than 200,000 consumers selected plans on the first day, more than double the number last year. The officials spoke about the first-day figure on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose it.
- Insurers Step Up Pitch for Obamacare as Government Slashes Its Effort Reuters by Caroline Humer — President Donald Trump's 90 percent cut to Obamacare advertising has U.S. health insurers in many states digging deeper into their pockets to get the word out about 2018 enrollment, which opened last week. .. "Our member plans are generally ramping up their efforts to kind of plug that hole," said Kelley Turek, an executive policy director at industry lobbyist America's Health Insurance Plans. "A decrease of $90 million is a big hole to plug."