With just a handful of days left in the first enrollment period for 2014, President Obama's signature healthcare law, commonly known as "Obamacare," has hit a major milestone: 6 million people have signed up for coverage under the law.
The White House announced the news during President Obama's trip to Italy, noting the 6 million signups came from both federal and state markets since they opened on Oct. 1. The last few days of the enrollment period have seen a surge of signup activity: according to the administration, the site received 1.5 million hits on Wednesday alone.
As CNN notes, the Congressional Budget Office estimated 7 million people would sign up for health care coverage in 2014, but scaled that estimate back after the law's disastrous rollout. The current figure of 6 million is in line with the CBO's revised predictions.
And that has many of the law's defenders celebrating.
REV. AL SHARPTON: "This law's helping millions of real people. And it's here to stay." (Via MSNBC)
But conservative detractors of Obamacare are picking apart the 6 million number, noting the statistic doesn't actually show how many people have purchased healthcare. A National Review writer estimates that number is likely to be more like 5 billion. (Via National Review)
"It would be analogous to hopping on Amazon.com, you have a bunch of items in your cart. The way it goes right now, they count you as having purchased those items even though they could just be sitting in your cart." (Via Fox News)
And a Bloomberg reporter notes enrollment figures aren't the only statistic Obamacare supporters have to worry about.
"One of the big things that we're going to be watching after open enrollment closes: how many of those are young and healthy? What does this mean for premiums next year? So it's definitely a more complicated picture than that number alone."
Final signups for 2014 healthcare coverage end Mar. 31.
