Obamacare exchange enrollment reaches 3,500 in Indiana

Nearly 2,800 Hoosiers enrolled in a private insurance plan on the Obamacare exchange in November, nearly four times as many as did so in October.

The faster pace of enrollment was mirrored in the other 35 states that are also relying on the federally run Healthcare.gov web site for online enrollment. The Obama administration worked feverishly in November to correct major technical problems with the web site that prevented numerous Americans from enrolling.

Even so, the pace of enrollment in the federal exchange will need to be nearly 12 times faster than it was in November if enrollment via the exchange is going to meet a federal projection of more than 4.8 million enrollees by the end of March.

According to a report issued Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 137,204 actually selected a private health insurance plan during October and November, with about 110,000 of them doing so in November.

In 14 states and the District of Columbia, which are operating their own insurance exchanges, enrollment also surged in November, to nearly 148,000 people, compared with about 80,000 in October.

Enrollment via the state-based exchanges will need to triple its pace to meet an overall federal projection of 7 million enrollees via the Obamacare exchanges.

All told, 364,682 Americans have selected a private insurance plan through the exchanges, which were created by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Another 1.9 million are in the process of buying private coverage on the exchanges.

In Indiana, so far, 3,492 people have selected a private insurance plan for 2014. In October, the total was just 701.

The insurers offering plans on the exchange in Indiana are Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, MDwise, Physicians Health Plan of Northern Indiana, and Centene-Celtic. Those insurers issued projections earlier this year that envisioned 200,000 Hoosiers signing up for coverage through the exchanges in 2014.