People lining up in El Paso, TX to get signed up this weekend.
Today is the last day to apply for health insurance under Obamacare, with a midnight deadline, but people who meet that deadline to begin their applications with have two weeks to complete them. So that meant a very big weekend all around the country as grassroots groups
held sign-up events.
Officials at healthcare.gov reported on Sunday that there were so many telephone calls, that consumers were being told to leave their information so they could be contacted later; 270,000 people called in for help on Saturday, plus 1.2 million people visited healthcare.gov, a record in terms of volume.
The spike in interest wasn't only noticed by those who support the health law.
"Thousands packed the Cashman Center for a free healthcare enrollment event Saturday," reported KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, detailing a rush of late applicants in the Silver State.
"Thousands lined up Friday outside the El Paso County Coliseum, scrambling to enroll for health care," read a story in the El Paso Times newspaper about signup efforts in Texas.
At least
9.5 million previously uninsured people have signed up for or obtained coverage. There will be a bit of number shuffling afterward, when we find out how many people have paid their premiums. That's the last hope of Republicans, that millions won't actually be insured because they haven't paid, and probably what they're going to point to with their
accusations that the White House is "cooking the books."
Let me repeat that. The last, great hope of Republicans is that millions of people don't get health insurance.
Given that, so far, 83 percent of enrollees have qualified for the subsidies to get help paying that first premium, and every premium after it, that's a really slim hope.
