CNN’S BLITZER SLAPPED FOR DEFYING OBAMA

• The U.S. government estimated that around 7 million people needed to enroll in health insurance through the new marketplaces during the first enrollment period for the program to have a healthy mix of enrollees and help keep insurance costs stable.
• The headline asks how many people actually enrolled during the first week after enrollment began on October 1, 2013.
• This became a major news story because the enrollment website, HealthCare.gov, suffered serious technical problems that prevented many people from signing up.

At the time, critics argued that the slow start could threaten the success of the program, while supporters pointed out that enrollment would continue for several months and was expected to increase once the website was fixed.

In the end, despite the rocky launch, enrollment accelerated over the following months, and more than 8 million people selected health insurance plans by the close of the first open enrollment period in 2014, surpassing the original 7 million target.

So, the headline is essentially asking:

“ObamaCare was expected to enroll 7 million people. Since the website launch had problems, how many people managed to sign up during its first week?”

It reflects the uncertainty surrounding the program’s rollout rather than its eventual outcome.