During a recent press conference, President Barack Obama announced that 8 million people have signed up for health coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act. However, polls and analyses suggest that this figure may be inaccurate.
David Hogberg of the National Center for Public Policy, told Fox News that based on projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the figure is closer to 6 million when considering those who are newly insured, as providing coverage to those who don't have access to employee benefits was the impetus for the ACA to begin with.
"Twenty to 33 percent are actually newly insured," said Hogberg. "And out of 8 million, that would be no more than 2 to 3 million people."
Obama also noted during the impromptu press conference that as time goes on, more people will come to realize how worthwhile the ACA is and opt to enroll, similar to how the Medicare program was initially unpopular but eventually became so.
Scott Gottlieb of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, said that the CBO's projections suggest otherwise. He pointed to the CBO predicting that four years from now, sign-up levels through the exchanges are projected to reach 25 million, but 12 million may lose coverage because of the essential health benefits provision.
"So net, you're left with 13 million people who end up on private coverage over the next decade as a result of ObamaCare, and this is according to the Congressional Budget Office's own estimates," said Gottlieb.
A recent Gallup poll found that an even smaller percentage of people are covered through the new exchanges than what the CBO estimated. Gallup revealed that 4 percent of Americans in 2014 are newly insured. Of these, just over 2 percent got their coverage through the state or federally facilitated marketplaces.
