According to two new measures, tens of thousands more Pennsylvanians are being moved into the category of "insureds" for 2015 when it comes to their health care needs.

In separate reports released this week, state and federal officials announced:

* More than 101,000 in-state households have applied for health insurance under Gov. Tom Corbett's new Healthy PA initiative, designed to provide federal medical assistance benefits to more of Pennsylvania's poorest families.

* Some 180,000 low- and moderate-income Pennsylvanians who make too much to qualify for traditional medical assistance have sought coverage through the federally-run insurance exchange, including about 95,000 first-time enrollees.

Nearly four in five of those persons will qualify for federal tax credits to help offset their premium costs, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Taken together, the preliminary data suggests something well more than 100,000 additional Pennsylvania adults currently without insurance are on track to be covered for most basic medical needs in 2015.

Pennsylvania was not ready to move forward with its medical assistance expansion in 2014, though some 320,000 residents did obtain private coverage through the exchanges at healthcare.gov this year.

Studies have suggested that about 60 percent of the persons participating in the exchanges did not have coverage before.

If that holds true in Pennsylvania, that means more than 230,000 of the estimated 1.4 million state residents living without insurance at the dawn of Obamacare would now have coverage.

Add in the new Healthy PA customers, and that number could exceed 300,000.

"There's a lot of people getting health insurance right now, which is exactly what we wanted to see," said Kait Gillis, a press spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.

Supporters of the Affordable Care Act argue that reducing the number of uninsured means more people will see improved health, which will also reduce the nation's overall health care tab.

The latest reports reflect only first-month enrollment numbers for both major tracks of the still-controversial Affordable Care Act's plan to increase access to health care across the country.

And both are still expected to grow through the winter.

Gillis noted that Healthy PA applications are open indefinitely for individuals and households whose annual income is below 138 percent of the federal poverty line, or $16,105 for a singe adult.

Open enrollment for the plans offered by private insurers on the federally-run exchange - available in some cases to a family of four with incomes as high as $95,400 - runs through Feb. 15.

"Interest in the marketplace has been strong during the first month of open enrollment," U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell said in announcing the new exchange numbers.

The Obama Administration hopes to see 9.1 million people paying for coverage sold under the law in 2015, up from some 6.7 million who had enrolled in 2014.

"We still have a ways to go and a lot of work to do before Feb. 15, but this is an encouraging start," Burwell said.