Officials say that sign-up for Obamacare reached 7 million just before the midnight deadline on Monday. That’s much higher than expected, especially with a last-minute tech glitch yesterday.
Although HealthCare.gov was offline for a few hours early Monday morning, an official told USA Today that early numbers show that 7 million people have signed up. That’s after President Barack Obama said last week that 6 million had signed up before the weekend and Monday.
According to the Associated Press, the 7 million number was much higher than expected. It was the Congressional Budget Office’s original target, which was recently lowered to 6 million.
Health and Human Services Department officials called Monday’s outage routine maintenance, but they noted the high volume the site received. Over 125,000 people were looking at the site simultaneously at one point, HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters told USA Today.
Despite the success of getting people signed up on the final day of open enrollment, opponents to the Affordable Care Act are still trying to get it repealed.
“The president's health care law continues to wreak havoc on American families, small businesses and our economy, and as I've said many times, the problem was never just about the website — it's the whole law,” House Speaker John Boehner said Monday. “We will also continue our work to replace this fundamentally-flawed law with patient-centered solutions focused on lowering health care costs and protecting jobs.”
The Obama administration has not officially announced how many Americans enrolled. That number will probably be announced in the coming weeks.