California Health Exchange Enrollment Hits 900K

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The head of California's health exchange says 900,000 people have signed up for insurance coverage so far.

Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee announced the latest figure Thursday during a rally at the historic Olvera Street Mexican marketplace in downtown Los Angeles.

While California leads the country, enrollment is still slightly short of original projections. Nationally, about 4.2 million people have signed up under the Affordable Care Act.

With the March 31 enrollment deadline looming, there's a last-minute push to attract Latinos and younger people. People between 18 and 34 years old are prized by insurers because they balance out of the cost of covering older people who tend to require more medical services.