About 1,700 in NC selected health plans

by Winston-Salem Journal, November 13, 2013.

Federal officials say about 1,700 North Carolina residents successfully signed up for health insurance plans on the troubled health care exchange website in the first month of open enrollment.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday almost 30,000 applications to buy coverage for almost 58,000 people were completed on the government's marketplace for private insurance. But only about 1,700 reached the point where they bought plans or are ready to write a check.

The government says about 15,000 North Carolina residents who went through the application process learned they were eligible for financial subsidies to buy coverage. Another 7,400 people were determined to be eligible for Medicaid, the government health insurance program primarily for children and the disabled.