Health Insurance Enrollment Just 250

Through Wednesday, only 250 Arkansans have been able to successfully enroll through the new health insurance portal at healthcare.gov, according to state officials.

As many as 500,000 citizens may qualify for the health insurance offerings the troubled web site may offer.

Josh Berry with our content partner, KARK Ch. 4 News, reports:

Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford looks to the launch of healthcare.gov not going as expected.

“We would have hoped that there were more people able to get all the way through the system,” he said. “That start up was as rough as it could possibly be. We were more or less shocked that the system wasn’t working properly.”

Could that be what’s limiting enrollment numbers this soon?

Arkansas actually did better at states comparable in size.

Arkansas had 250 people signed up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Iowa came in at 136 with Mississippi at 148.

“We don’t like to be compared to Mississippi but the demographics are somewhat similar,” Bradford joked. “We usually beat them every time – except in football this year.”

That’s besides the point of course but according to the Insurance Department, most numbers on the map are a far cry from expectations.

Bradford added, “Certainly they’re way behind their original projections.”

Bradford noted that 14,000 Arkansans have completed applications through the Arkansas Department of Human Services and those apps have yet to be fully processed. He also said the low number reported Wednesday does not take into account the nearly 50,000 who have signed up for Arkansas’ Private Option.

Read more or watch the full report at this link.