�Թϲ�����

Sign-ups for Affordable Care Act health plans are running more than 45 percent ahead of last year's pace, according to government data released Wednesday. The numbers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services come as Republican senators are pushing to pay for tax cuts by repealing the "Obamacare" requirement to carry coverage. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/15)

More than 800,000 people signed up for Obamacare individual health insurance plans in the second week of open enrollment, U.S. government health officials said on Wednesday, bringing the total number of sign-ups to nearly 1.5 million so far. (Abutaleb, 11/15)

The portion of new consumers enrolling in ACA plans is slightly down this year, according to the latest federal report. Those Americans accounted for 23 percent of enrollees between Nov. 1 and Nov. 11, as opposed to 24 percent in the early days of 2016. (Eilperin, 11/15)

There are also more new consumers signing up for plans this year, the data show. In the first two weeks of open enrollment, 345,719 new consumers have signed up for plans, compared to 246,433 during the same time period last year. (Hellmann, 11/15)

Prior to the start of open enrollment, many experts feared sign-ups would lag this year because of deep cuts in federal funding for Obamacare marketing and outreach, and enrollment assistance through certified navigators. The first two weeks of the enrollment period suggest those concerns may have been overblown. (Livingston, 11/15)

In other words, there might be no such thing as bad news for Obamacare. “As P.T. Barnum would say, as long as my name is in the papers and it’s spelled correctly, it’s all good,” said Michael Marchand, chief marketing officer for Washington state’s Obamacare marketplace, which saw its website traffic increase by 24 percent during the first week of enrollment. “I think there’s some truth to that.” The conventional wisdom was that enrollment would dip significantly as a hostile administration gutted outreach and marketing. (Demko, 11/15)

It’s hard to gauge what the acceleration means for the Obamacare marketplaces overall, because consumers have only half the time to enroll in plans on healthcare.gov this year. Even a stronger-than-expected start could end with fewer people signing up by the time the window closes Dec. 15. (Tozzi, 11/15)

Health insurance sign-ups through MNsure, the state’s individual insurance marketplace, are off to a strong start in the first two weeks of open enrollment. As of Tuesday, 91,623 people had signed up through Minnesota’s exchange for the federal Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Most of those sign-ups were from existing customers who renewed plans or who chose different coverage. (Magan, 11/15)