As the midpoint of the 2018 open enrollment period approaches, the number of consumers purchasing Affordable Care Act health insurance plans on the federal exchange has increased year over year, according to federal data.
In the first three weeks of the new open enrollment period, nearly 2.3 million consumers have selected plans on the federal exchange, compared with about 2.1 million consumers during the same period a year ago, according to information released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS.

The agency specifies "plan selections" as the total number of people who have submitted an application and selected a plan, excluding cancellations.
CMS announced in August that it would cut the agency's outreach and advertising budget to $10 million from $100 million. It also shortened the open enrollment period from three months to seven weeks via a final rule in April.
Nevertheless, the number of new consumers signing up for plans on the federal exchange climbed year over year to 718,285 from Nov. 1 to Nov. 25, compared with 519,492 during the same period last year.
Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia use healthcare.gov to enroll individuals in health plans. When exchanges were first set up after the ACA went into effect, states were allowed to choose to either create and manage their own exchanges or use the federal website.
Open enrollment began Nov. 1 and ends Dec. 15.
