The number of people who signed up for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) shot up by 79 percent within days of the federal website Healthcare.gov opening, compared with the same period last year, USA Today reported. “It’s the biggest start to open enrollment ever,” said Lori Lodes, an Obama administration official and a founder of Get America Covered, an outreach program which focuses on getting the word out about letting people know they can still enroll in the program, the New York Times reported. Figures released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) showed that 601,462 people signed up for the program in 39 states served by the federal Healthcare.gov website, from November 1 to November 4. It should be noted that the CMS data is only a reflection of sign-ups in the states that rely on the federal enrollment website. However, the apparent increase in sign-ups has been mirrored in states that control their own ACA marketplaces. (USA Today)