- Sign-Up Pace Much Slower in Week Four of 2018 Obamacare Enrollment Reuters — The pace of people signing up for individual insurance under Obamacare slowed significantly during the fourth week of 2018 enrollment, as nearly 37 percent fewer people signed up for the healthcare plans than in the previous week, a U.S. government agency reported on Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that 504,181 people signed up for 2018 Obamacare individual insurance in the 39 states that use the federal government website HealthCare.gov for the week ended Nov. 25, down from 798,829 people in the previous week. New consumer sign-ups fell to 152,243 from 220,323 in the previous week. Total sign-ups reached 2.78 million during the first four weeks of enrollment, which lasts through Dec. 15. Despite the slowdown, enrollment is up from last year, according to Evercore ISI analyst Michael Newshel.
- Putting Money Where Its Mouthpiece Is: Calif. Outspends U.S. to Market Obamacare California Healthline by Ana Ibarra and Carmen Heredia Rodriguez —The marketing blitz is on. Californians are getting barraged with online pop-up ads, radio spots and television commercials, all aimed at persuading them to sign up for Affordable Care Act health plans during this year's open-enrollment season. Covered California, the state's Obamacare exchange, is wielding a monster marketing budget that devotes $45 million to ads, including $18 million for TV and $8 million for radio. The agency is so flush with marketing dollars that it also spent $100,000 for a dozen freshly painted murals across the state, most of which have nothing directly to do with health insurance enrollment. Covered California's marketing riches contrast starkly with the advertising budget for the federal health insurance exchange, healthcare.gov. The feds have slashed ad dollars to $10 million, down from $100 million last year.
