The Obama administration said on Thursday it had overcounted a recent Obamacare enrollment number it released by “mistake.” The clarification came after a report from Bloomberg that said the administration had included dental-plan enrollees, a change from previous enrollment reports.
Bloomberg’s Alex Wayne reported earlier on Thursday that the administration had included as many as 400,000 dental-plan enrollees in its September enrollment total of 7.3 million. That had in turn pushed total enrollment passed by the 7-million projection originally offered by the Congressional Budget Office.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services then said after the report that “a mistake was made.” The correct enrollment total is 6.7 million as of Oct. 15.
“A mistake was made in calculating the number of individuals with effectuated Marketplace enrollments,” a CMS spokesperson said in an email. “We have determined that individuals who had both Marketplace medical and dental coverage were erroneously counted in our recent announcements.”
“Moving forward only individuals with medical coverage will be included in our effectuated enrollment numbers,” the spokesperson said.
