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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Health insurance sign-ups coming to shopping malls

Carla K. Johnson Associated Press

CHICAGO – The Obama administration will promote health insurance coverage at shopping malls starting on Black Friday and continuing through the busiest shopping days of the holiday season, officials announced Wednesday. They said more than 462,000 people selected a private insurance plan in the first week of 2015 enrollment through the online marketplace HealthCare.gov.

The government’s enrollment push with Westfield Shopping Centers will involve setting up outreach tables at malls in Washington state, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and New York. Separately, the California insurance marketplace, Covered California, will work with Westfield malls in that state.

The administration released what it called a snapshot of sign-ups for the first week of the enrollment period, which started Nov. 15. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said 462,125 people chose a health plan in the 37 states using the federal website.

Of those, 48 percent are new customers, including enrollees in Oregon and Nevada, which turned over their troubled insurance markets to the federal government. The figures don’t include states running their own insurance markets. The numbers represent only the choice of a plan, and not whether consumers paid their first month’s premium – a requirement for coverage to start.

“We’re off to a solid start but we’ve got a lot of work every day between now and Feb. 15,” the last day of the enrollment period, Burwell said in a conference call with reporters.