BOOM: Pres. Obama confirms record 670K QHPs via HC.gov yesterday alone

Some guy, 5:12pm last night:

So, how about my projections? Well, for today specifically (12/15), I've been assuming roughly 700,000 QHP selections nationally (540K via HC.gov plus 160K via the dozen state exchanges), bringing the cumulative total up to 7.70 million nationally.

HC.gov's one-day enrollment record was set exactly a year ago today (12/15/15), when they enrolled 600,000 people in a single 24-hour period. I've been assuming that fewer people would enroll today specifically this year, if only because so many current enrollees have been actively renewing earlier than in the past; I figured this would've taken some of the heat off of the final day, so I knocked 10% off of the top.

Instead, it looks like I may have underestimated today's haul. The federal exchange could conceivably hit 700K today, and the national tally could potentially hit 800K or so. Then again, if they announce a deadline extension, some of that might spill over into the weekend.

Just a moment ago, President Obama confirmed that "over 670,000" people selected QHPs via HealthCare.Gov yesterday alone:

More people signed up for insurance on HealthCare.gov on Thursday than any time since the launch of the Affordable Care Act exchanges three years ago, President Obama announced Friday.

More than 670,000 people signed up for coverage ahead of the Dec. 15 deadline for Jan. 1 coverage. And that's despite the fact about 1 million people had to leave their contact information as they couldn't get on the site. About 600,000 people signed up last year on Dec. 15.

Not quite 700K, but still 12% higher than last year's one-day record.

Combined with Covered California's just-announced 23,000 enrollments yesterday alone, that's 693,000 confirmed for 40 states. I'm estimating when the other 10 states + DC are added in, the grand one-day total was likely close to 800,000 people.