ObamaCare hiccup? Obama makes personal sales pitch to boost lagging enrollment

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It’s that time of the year again when the weather turns chilly, presents get wrapped … and former President Barack Obama makes his last-minute pitch for Americans to enroll in ObamaCare before the December deadline.

In a nearly 90-second video -- which was posted on his Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts -- Obama jokes that this year he is not using any gimmicks to get people to sign up on Healthcare.gov. The deadline for enrollment is Dec. 15.

"I think you've proven that you don't need to see me taking jump shots or sitting between a couple of forest plants to know it's important to have health insurance in case, God forbid, you get really sick or hurt yourself next year," Obama says, referencing previous videos he made while in office, including one in 2014 where he was interviewed on comedian Zach Galifianakis' "Between Two Ferns" show.

But the clip then ends with a pair of sunglasses superimposed over Obama’s face and the background behind him shifting from a bedroom to a mountain scene featuring a rainbow.

“You’ve got a filter on me, don’t you?” Obama says.

The video has been viewed more than 2.6 million times on Facebook and retweeted more than 122,000 times on Twitter. While it amounts to a light-hearted appeal for people to sign up, the video also underscores this year's lagging enrollment numbers at a time when the Republican-led Congress has worked to chip away at the controversial program.

The average number of people signing up daily for the health care program is down roughly 8 percent from the same time last year, according to figures released Thursday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

It's unclear whether a year-end surge will make up some of that ground.

“There typically is a surge in enrollment at the end,” Sabrina Corlette, research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms, told NBC News. “It’s hard to know whether it will make up for the shortfall.”

Despite Trump's claims to have gotten rid of ObamaCare, the program remains in place. But the Trump administration has slashed the budget for ObamaCare advertising by 90 percent and for enrollment counselors to help sign people up -- and, most significantly, eliminated the penalty for not having health insurance amid criticism over rising premiums and other costs.

That goes into effect next year.

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According to the Congressional Budget Office estimates, as many as 3 million people who buy their own coverage may give it up when they don’t face a tax penalty. But some experts say that the penalty has not been a factor in the past when deciding to buy insurance.

Democrats complain that the Trump administration's changes have only served to undermine the program -- for instance, by shortening the enrollment period. Under Trump, ObamaCare customers have just six weeks to pick out health insurance, which is half the amount of time they had under Obama.