At least 6,859 Georgians now have health coverage through the federal marketplace. That coverage began Jan. 1 under the Affordable Care Act.

That figure, however, may actually be much higher, according to White House Deputy Senior Advisor David Simas.

“You can expect some pretty exponential growth, because that’s what we saw nationwide,” Simas said.

The 6,859 figure was based on enrollment information from Oct. 1 through Nov. 30. So far, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had not released any figures for enrollment since December 1, which was the day they rolled out the updated Healthcare.gov website after widespread problems with the first version of the site.

“There was a significant--if not massive--uptick nationwide, not only in the federal marketplaces, but also in states that ran their own marketplaces where you were seeing in places like Kentucky 3,000 people enrolling per day. In California, 20,000-30,000 people enroll[ed] per day,” Simas said.

The federal government plans to release updated enrollment numbers in mid-January.

Tags: health, healthcare, insurance, White House, Affordable Care Act, obamacare, Healthcare.gov