Worse than anyone thought: Just 27,000 people signed up to Obamacare on crippled healthcare.gov website in October – only 744 per state

Abysmal numbers will add new pressure as Republicans press for changes to the Affordable Care Act

106,185 chose plans overall, including the separate websites run by 14 states and the District of Columbia



Nearly one-third of all sign-ups came from California, which is running its own exchange site

The Obama administration is drawing heat for including in its numbers anyone who put an insurance plan in their online shopping cart, even if they haven't paid for the policies

Far more – 396,261 – have chosen to enter the Medicaid system, which will put a drain on resources instead of adding new money to the system



The Obama administration is in full damage-control mode after the Department of Health and Human Services was forced to admit Wednesday that fewer than 27,000 signed up for Obamacare health plans through the disastrous healthcare.gov as of Nov. 2.



The federal government's horrible numbers come out to 744 people per state.



Thirty-six states are relying on healthcare.gov to process all their enrollments. Fourteen states plus the District of Columbia have their own and better run healthcare exchanges. Enrollments in these brought the total signing up to 106,185.

That number represents just 1.5 per cent of the 7 million the Obamacare system will need to attract by the end of March in order to take in enough money to pay for its expected financial outlays in 2014.



During his daily briefing on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney deflected questions seven separate times about the administration's expectations for enrollments by the end of November.

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Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius doesn't have much to applaud, with dismal numbers to show for the hundreds of millions of dollars spent implementing the Affordable Care Act Failure: The butt-of-jokes healthcare.gov website turned in worse numbers than anyone expected, registering just 27,000 people through Nov. 2

The 15 state-level websites, which have experienced fewer problems than the one run by the federal government, signed up about 79,000. They are averaging 5,267 sign-ups each.



Making matters worse, doubts still remain about what those numbers mean, since HHS included Americans who have chosen insurance plans and put them in virtual 'shopping carts,' but not yet paid for them.

In early September the Obama administration projected that 494,620 people would sign up during October.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters on a conference call that her system is gathering steam despite the poor showing.

'Even with the issues we’ve had, the marketplace is working and people are enrolling,' she insisted.

'There is no doubt the level of interest is strong.'



The administration said Wednesday that a total of 975,407 people 'have made it through the process by applying and receiving an eligibility determination, but have not yet selected a plan.'

That number includes hundreds of thousands who will receive government subsidies.

Last laugh: Conservatives have been calling for Obamacare's repeal for three years, and will feel vindicated now that the system's results are nowhere near what the White House and its health agencies have promised House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Rep. Fred Upton has proposed a rollback of Obamacare fines and requirements for anyone who has their own individual health insurance plans as of December 31

Sebelius said last week in a Senate Finance Committee hearing that HHS expects 1 million to enroll by year's end.



But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican, suggested in a statement that the Obamacare system has little hope of recouping its losses.

'Even if this data was an accurate picture, the administration would need to enroll 68,000 people per day to meet their year-end goal,' he said

'However, the website isn’t even designed to handle that much traffic and is currently capable of only handling less than half that much.'

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell complained that 'only in Washington could placing an item in a virtual shopping cart – without even buying it – count as a sale'

'If private businesses used that standard, online retailers would be poised to announce their best earnings season in American history,' he mocked.



Most of the people who have enrolled in plans chose free Medicaid coverage or plans available through the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Those options will cost taxpayers billions without putting any new money into the system through monthly insurance premiums.

Nearly one-third of the nationwide enrollment numbers came from California. Success stories in Florida and Texas, which are part of the healthcare.gov portal, were just 3,571 and 2,991, respectively.

Lame, wounded duck? Presdient Obama promised that Americans who liked their health plans could keep them, but more than 4 million have received cancellation letters because of his signature insurance overhaul law Unimpressed: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp said HHS still needs to enroll 68,000 people every day through December 31 to reach its year-end goal

Those three states have been a key part of the administration's strategy from the beginning, since they are home to a large plurality of the nation's uninsured, a group that the White House sayd numbers more than 50 million.



Whistling past the graveyard? Kathleen Sebelius said last week that she still expects 1 million Americans to sign up for Obamacare coverage by Dec. 31

The White House as strained to keep expectations low in recent weeks, following a chronically ill launch of the Affordable Care Act's main website.

CNN analyst Gloria Borger called the healthcare.gov episode 'a complete disaster for the administration' on Wednesday.

'It's clear that they've been low-balling what to expect, and I'm not quite sure they low-balled it enough.'

HHS has promised that the site would be fully fixed and functional by the end of November, but a report in the Washington Post today

But the White House has only assured reporters that it will work for a 'vast majority' of Americans.

Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group that has long opposed Obamacare and mocked its rollout, said in a statement that the White House is shading the truth, even with its lower than expected numbers.

'In the real economy, a business doesn't count sales until they've actually been paid,' said the group's president, Tim Phillips.

'The Obama administration however, is counting 106,185 Americans as having enrolled, regardless of whether they've actually purchased a product or not.'

More than 4 million Americans have lost their health insurance in recent months as a result of Obamacare's new requirements covering private insurance.

President Obama is under intense pressure to keep his oft-made promise that taxpayers who are happy with their existing medical insurance policies would be able to keep them.



Former President Bill Clinton said this week that he thought the law should be tweaked to allow the government to keep its pledge.