Covered California Says Latest Application Numbers ‘Exceed Expectations’

The federal government’s numbers show more than 35,000 Californians have picked a health plan through the state-run exchange as of November 2^nd.

But Peter Lee of Covered California says the total is almost twice that if you count the latest numbers.

“Let me give you a flavor of momentum and growth, here in California. In the period between November 1^st and November 12^th, in additional 29,000 Californians have selected a health plan. What’s that mean? More than 2,000 a day are picking health plans,” says Lee.

There are countless ways to crunch the numbers of people showing interest in the Obamacare websites.

Federal data show during the first month, Californians accounted for about a third of the total number of Americans who picked health plans.

Those California numbers are higher than for any other single state, and more than the total of people who picked plans through the federally run exchange.

But the five-digit number in Covered California is a small portion of the five and a half million people who are uninsured in the state.

“Everyone’s not going to be in on day one. We need to get a good mix of people in, and a lot of people in, but we never anticipated that we’re going to have a hundred percent of the people in,” says Lee.

Both the federal government and Covered California say the people who have picked plans haven’t necessarily paid their first month premium.

That’s due in December.