Through the beginning of March, 4.2 million Americans signed up for private coverage through state and federally-run exchanges, leaving federal health officials hoping for a final month's surge to meet initial projections, especially for millennials.
Of the 4.2 million, about 1.6 million of the new enrollees are from the 24 states with their own exchanges, while about 2.6 million are from the 36 states where the federal government is running the exchange via Healthcare.gov.
That 4.2 million compares to the 7 million that the Congressional Budget Office originally projected for the first open enrollment period, a figure recently revised to 6 million. Without saying whether they think they can reach that number, HHS officials were bullish on being able to accept "millions" more enrollees.
February enrollment represents a 29 percent increase in the cumulative number of consumers selecting a Marketplace plan during the month of February, although February saw slightly fewer enrollments than January.
"We expect that even more will sign up before the March 31 deadline," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, now that Healthcare.gov's average response time is under half-a second.
HHS is promising to release more detailed demographic and economic data after the open enrollment period ends, including information on the number of uninsured who have signed up.
What demographic data the agency has released includes rough age breakdowns, and officials are cautiously optimistic they'll attract something at least close to the estimated proportion of young people that the Obama Administration has said is needed to sustain risk pools -- 40 percent.
Young people have been enrolling at a quicker pace than other adults, said Gary Cohen, the outgoing director of HHS's Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.
So far, 25 percent of the new enrollees are between the ages of 18 and 34, 69 percent are older than 35 and just 6 percent are youth up to age 17.
Among millennials ages 18 to 34 enrolling through the federal marketplace, 66 percent are buying silver-tier plans, 15 percent are selecting bronze plans, 10 percent are selecting gold plans, 5 percent are selecting platinum plans and 4 percent have selected catastrophic plans.
Of all the enrollees in the federal exchange, 63 percent have selected silver plans, 18 percent have selected bronze plans, 11 percent have selected gold plans, 6 percent platinum plans and just 1 percent have bought platinum plans.
In other exchange news, HHS spokesperson Julie Bataille said that the system for insurer payments will be completed "within the next few months." And no, there are no plans to extend open enrollment. "In fact, we don't have the statutory authority to extend the open enrollment period," Bataille said.