The Obama administration said it incorrectly added 380,000 dental subscribers to its totals when it calculated the number of people with health coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The accurate number of people with full healthcare plans is 6.7 million as of October 15, and federal health official said dental plans won't be included in future reports, according to a Bloomberg.com story.
The error was discovered by Republican investigators, using data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The new figure puts enrollment short of a 2013 estimate by the Congressional Budget Office, adopted last year as a goal by the Obama administration, that 7 million people would be enrolled in 2014. Federal officials recently said they had 7.3 million people enrolled in coverage through government-run insurance exchanges. They didn't distinguish between medical and dental plans, breaking from previous practice.
In May, federal officials said 8 million were signed up for health plans and 1.1 million were in dental coverage.
