Approximately 51,000 people completed Obamacare applications during healthcare.gov's first week online, according to an exclusive report from The Daily Mail.
A woman looks at the HealthCare. gov insurance exchange internet site October 1, 2013 in Washington, DC. US President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it is commonly called, passed in March 2010, went into effect Tuesday at 8am EST (Getty Images)
This may signal a serious problem.
The Congressional Budget Office said it needs at least 7 million enrollees during the open enrollment period, which is slated to last six months, to keep the massive new health care law financially stable.
At this rate, and if the 51,000 figure is accurate, the total number of Americans who will have signed up by the end of the enrollment period will be roughly 1.32 million (this includes the state-run exchanges).
"The administration’s goal is 7 million people in the first year," Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist told MailOnline. "We are not on track for anything like 7 million. New Coke was retired for being a smaller disappointment."
Several Obama administration officials, including Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, have claimed that they do not have access to the official enrollment figures.
"There was no good reason to hide these number," Norquist said, referring to the White House's refusal to comment on the official figures. "This is not keeping a secret from the Russians or the Syrians. ... Why lie about this, for crying out loud?"
The Daily Mail’s anonymous sources, who process data for the HHS, confirmed independently of each other that just 6,200 people applied for Obamacare on Oct. 1, the day healthcare.gov went live.
"These numbers reflect what we all know: Obamacare is a disaster," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told MailOnline. "It is time for the president to admit Obamacare is not working and that the American people deserve better."
Health and Human Services, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Enroll America -- the group charged with “navigating” Americans through the signup process -- declined to comment on the official enrollment figures.
“[I]f the numbers are accurate,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), who chairs the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, they show “that relatively few people have navigated the challenges of the first step of the process – roughly the population of a small town in my district.”
“The White House and HHS have continually claimed they did not have these figures,” Brady told MailOnline. “If they do, they have misled the Congress and the American people.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said the low numbers are indicative of a much bigger problem.
"Far more people have been unable to complete their applications because of crashing websites or impossible wait times than have successfully enrolled," Issa said. "[T]he clock is ticking and the window for open enrollment gets smaller every day."
A Health and Human Services spokesperson did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheBlaze.
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Featured image Getty Images.
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