- Nearly 11.8 M Enroll for Obama Health Law in 2018 Associated Press by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Kevin S. Vineys — Call it the political equivalent of a death-defying escape: former President Barack Obama's health care law pulled in nearly 11.8 million customers for 2018, despite the Republican campaign to erase it from the books. An Associated Press count found that nationwide enrollment was about 3 percent lower than last year. California, with more than 1.5 million sign-ups, was the last state to report, announcing its numbers on Wednesday. Sixteen states increased their enrollment from last year, according to AP's analysis. Six of those were carried by President Donald Trump in 2016, while 10 went for Democrat Hillary Clinton. However, of the total number of people signed up this year about 6 in 10 live in states that went for Trump, according to AP's analysis.
- Obamacare Enrollment Tells Tale of Two Systems The Hill by Jessie Hellmann — Most states that operate their own Obamacare exchanges saw more people sign up in 2018 than last year, while 29 of the 34 states that rely on the federal government to promote enrollment saw their sign-ups fall. Of the 17 state-based marketplaces, 11 saw enrollment increases: Colorado, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Nevada, Washington, Kentucky and Oregon while California, Idaho, Maryland, Vermont, Arkansas and New Mexico saw decreases. The 34 states using the federal marketplace, in contrast, saw a 5.3 percent drop in enrollment, according to data released Wednesday by the National Academy of State Health Policy (NASHP). Louisiana, one of those states, saw a 23 percent drop in enrollment — a difference of about 33,700 people. Overall, total enrollment in Obamacare dropped about 4 percent, or by 500,000 people, as the increases in the state-based exchanges did not increase enough to offset the losses on the federal exchange.