Obamacare heads north

The number of Northern California residents enrolled in the state’s health-insurance exchange through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act increased by about 40 percent in January.

According to a March 4 press release from Covered California, the agency implementing the ACA in the state, as of Jan. 31, 27,853 consumers in mostly rural North State counties had enrolled in health insurance through the exchange, compared to the 19,732 enrollments recorded through Dec. 31. The region’s 22 counties include Butte, Tehama, Glenn and Yuba.

The release attributes “the improving pace of enrollments” to increased call center staff, additional phone lines and improvements to the website, including upgrading the Spanish-language Web pages.

During the four-month period, a total of 728,410 state residents enrolled for coverage.