Web site woes will reduce health care enrollment
Budget office: Administration's web site woes to reduce 2014 enrollment in Obama's health law
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Budget experts for Congress say fewer uninsured people than expected will get covered this year through President Barack Obama's health care law.
The Congressional Budget Office dropped its estimate by 2 million people. That's partly the result of website problems that prevented people from signing up last fall when new markets for subsidized private insurance went live.
Website woes have largely cleared up, but the nonpartisan analysts said Tuesday they expect 1 million fewer people to sign up through the new insurance exchanges, for a new total of 6 million in 2014. They predict enrollment will pick up and top 20 million in 2016.
CBO also revised its Medicaid projection down by 1 million, for a new total of 8 million. About half the states have accepted the law's Medicaid expansion.
