(Bloomberg) Just over 7 million people enrolled for insurance coverage under Obamacare after a last-minute surge at the deadline to sign up, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday.
Carney announced the figure hours before President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver remarks on his signature health care law.
The enrollment of 7.04 million people came after a remarkable surge in the final day of the open-enrollment period, which ended at midnight yesterday, Carney said.
Its fair to say we surpassed everyones expectations, Carney said. He said detailed breakdowns that show who enrolled arent yet available.
Seven million enrollees matches the initial estimates for insurance signups under the law. The Congressional Budget Office in February projected that 6 million people would enroll, after stumbles getting the federal website for enrollment up and running. The law has been under attack by Republicans, who plan to make dissatisfaction with Obamacare a central part of the congressional campaign for elections in November.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, speaking at the White House after meeting with Obama, said Democrats are very pleased with the ACA results, and that the partys candidates wont be running from the issue.
Obama is scheduled to deliver remarks about the Affordable Care Act at 4:15 p.m. Washington time.
There were more than 4.8 million visits to HealthCare.gov yesterday, the deadline for signing up, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a unit of the Department of Health and Human Services. That exceeded the previous high of 1.8 million on Dec. 23.
