Exchange Claims Quarter-Million SIgn-Ups, But Did They Actually Enroll?

How seriously should we take Obamacare figures?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported today that Obamacare's subsidized health insurance exchanges signed up 258,497 Americans in November. That's about two-and-a-half times the number that they signed up in October, roughly in-line with expectations. While these numbers fall well short of the administration's initial expectations, they do indicate that the administration is gradually resolving some of the technical issues that have bedeviled the exchanges. The issue is this: "signing up" for insurance isn't the same thing as enrolling in, and being covered by, a health plan. And the administration isn't releasing true enrollment numbers because their back-end infrastructure is still messed up.