WASHINGTON — The Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday it made a mistake in how it calculated enrollments under the Affordable Care Act, including 380,000 dental plans in its figures for medical plans.
Those stand-alone dental plans allowed the Obama administration to claim more than 7 million paid enrollments — the "magic number" that would allow the new health insurance exchanges to be sustainable.
The discrepancy was first reported by Bloomberg News, citing data obtained through the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
In testimony to that committee Sept. 18, a top HHS official made no mention of dental plans when she gave enrollment numbers. Dental plans had previously been accounted for separately from medical plans.
"As of Aug. 15th this year, we have 7.3 million Americans enrolled in the health insurance marketplace coverage, and these are individuals who've paid their premiums," Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Marilyn Tavenner testified.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell repeated the number at the Brookings Institution the next week, saying 7.3 million had "signed up for marketplace plans, paid their premiums and have access to affordable care."
Even without the inflated numbers from dental plans, the exchanges have lost more than 1 million subscribers since May, a decline Tavenner attributed to people picking up employer coverage, becoming eligible for Medicaid or simply not paying their premiums. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the chairman of the House oversight committee, said adding the dental plans "obscured and downplayed the number of dropouts."