To date, about 4000 people in Missouri, and nearly 2000 in Kansas have completed enrollment and selected a healthcare plan through healthcare.gov.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported the numbers Wednesday. Overall, about 365,000 Americans had picked a health insurance plan through the federal website as of Nov. 30.
There was a rocky rollout in October. But, site access has reportedly improved and enrollments have increased.
In Kansas, 1,855 people selected a marketplace plan during October and November. Sheldon Weisgrau heads a non-profit initiative to help Kansans understand the Affordable Care Act. He says it’s simply too early to pass judgment on the health care law.
“It’s absolutely true that, to date, more people have probably lost their coverage because they’ve had policies canceled than have been able to go into the marketplace and sign up," said Weisgrau. "But we also have had two months where, largely, the website didn’t work, and it’s only been working well for a couple of weeks now. And so, I just think it’s much too early to draw those sorts of conclusions.”
Weisgrau says people tend to wait until a deadline is near to sign up for programs like this. The deadline to sign up for individual health insurance plans is the end of March—more than three months from now.
In addition to the 1,855 Kansans who’ve signed up for insurance so far, more than 2,300 have been determined eligible for Medicaid. Another 5,000 applications are listed as “pending."
