Report: Only 51,000 People Signed Up for Obamacare Through the Federal Exchange During First Week

Only 51,000 people completed Obamacare applications through Healthcare.gov over the program’s first week, according to two sources within HHS.

Citing two career civil servants within the department who have access to the data, the Daily Mail reports that only 6,200 people got applications through the glitch-ridden federal exchange, which serves 34 states, on October 1, its launch day.

If the state exchanges experience a similar response rate until the March 31 cutoff for open enrollment, the program will have only enrolled 2 million nationwide, according to the Daily Mail’s calculations. The Congressional Budget Office had projected that 7 million Americans would join the exchange.

From spokesmen for five different Democratic senators to HHS and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the White House and Enroll America (the nonprofit organization spearheading the PR effort for Obamacare), no one responded to the Mail’s request for comment.

When asked earlier this week, Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius told Comedy Central host Jon Stewart that she didn’t know how many people had signed up.