Welcome to Health Reform Watch, Sarah Kliff’s regular look at how the Affordable Care Act is changing the American health-care system — and being changed by it. You can reach Sarah with questions, comments and suggestions here. Check back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon for the latest edition, or sign up here to receive it straight from your inbox. Read previous columns here. 
 
 The Obama administration has beaten a monthly health insurance enrollment target for the first time, according to data released Wednesday showing that more than 1.14 million people signed up for health plans in January in the new insurance marketplace. 
 
 
 
 The latest enrollment data from the Obama administration show that 3.3 million people have signed up for private health insurance through federal and state insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act. This figure represents all enrollment from Oct. 1 through Feb. 1. It includes both people who have and have not paid their first month's premium. Of those people, 1,146,100 selected their health insurance plans in January, meaning there was a 53 percent increase enrollment last month alone. 
 
 This makes January the first month that the Obama administration has beaten an enrollment target. Back in September, way before HealthCare.gov's botched launch, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projected that 1,059,900 people would sign up for private health insurance in January. 
 
 However, the Obama administration still falls short of projected, cumulative enrollment by 1 million people, largely due to the anemic sign-ups in October and November. 
 
 This is also a drop-off from December's enrollment number of 1.8 million sign-ups, which both the Obama administration and health policy experts expected. They predicted a rush of enrollments in December, for people who wanted to get covered at the start of the year. They also foresee another surge of enrollment in March, the last month when people can sign up for coverage through the exchange. 
 
 The new enrollment figures also show a slight increase in the number of young adults signing up for coverage. Young adults between 18 and 35 made up 27 percent of the enrollees in January, compared to 24 percent of those signing up from October through December. 
 
 Taken together, this means that 25 percent of those who have enrolled are the young adults that the Obama administration thinks will be healthier, and thus hold down insurance premiums in the exchanges. This is still below the 40 percent target that the Obama administration had previously set for overall exchange enrollment, although the hope, on their part, is that the 25 percent number continues to inch up in February and March. 
 
 The balance of people selecting coverage is shifting slightly toward the HealthCare.gov site rather than the 14 state-based exchanges, most of which had more successful launches than the federal Web site. 
 
 The biggest takeaway here, probably, is that Obamacare is starting to look more and more like the law that the White House had hoped to launch -- not the one where technical glitches made it nearly impossible for shoppers to get in the door. 
 
 KLIFF NOTES: Top health policy reads from around the Web. 
 
 Small businesses get Obamacare relief -- but aren't sure they'll use it. "Small and midsize businesses stand to benefit the most from the latest delay in the health law's employer insurance requirement. But farm co-owner Laura Pedersen doesn't plan to take advantage of it. The Seneca Castle, N.Y., proprietor of a produce and grain farm last year rearranged her employees' schedules and workloads to keep the farm's full-time staff below 50 workers. Her goal was to avoid having to start providing insurance or pay a penalty in 2015 under the Affordable Care Act." Sarah E. Needleman and Rhonda Colvin in the Wall Street Journal. 
 
 For HealthCare.gov work, CGI employees are still in hot demand. "After denigrating the work of CGI and replacing it as the largest contractor on the federal health care website, the Obama administration is negotiating with the company to extend its work on the project for a few months. And the new prime contractor, Accenture, is trying to recruit and hire CGI employees to work under its supervision." Robert Pear and Ian Austen in the New York Times. 
 
 What did Congress mean when they drafted Obamacare's subsidy language? Let's ask congressional staff! "Two staff-level sources directly involved in drafting the law told TPM that no one intended to block subsidies from being administered through the federal website. Instead, they blame the poorly worded phrase on which conservative have based their case on the unusual legislative process through which Obamacare became law. "I don't even understand how the question is being asked," one source said, "except you could go through the law and find all sorts of issues that probably could have been drafted clearer. I think the opponents of health reform are just scanning for inconsistencies and poorly drafted language and trying to exploit them."" Dylan Scott in Talking Points Memo. ||||| Policy-ish 
 
 After January Surge, 3.3 Million Have Enrolled In Obamacare 
 
 i itoggle caption Jim Mone/AP Jim Mone/AP 
 
 January was a miserable month for weather, but the wintry blasts in much of the country weren't enough to stop people from shopping for health insurance. 
 
 More than 1.1 million people signed up for coverage through state and federal health exchanges in January, according to a just-released report, bringing the total to just shy of 3.3 million people. 
 
 And the percentage of young adults — the coveted demographic considered key to making the insurance pools viable — rose a bit during January. People ages 18-34 now account for 25 percent of the total exchange enrollment, up from 24 percent in December. 
 
 "The 65 percent growth rate" of young adults signing up "is larger than all other age groups combined," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters in a conference call. 
 
 For the first time, the monthly report includes information on gender and the types of plan people are buying. At least so far, more women (55 percent) than men are signing up for coverage. And by far the most popular plan is the silver, or third-most generous plan, which has been selected by 62 percent of enrollees. 
 
 Many questions, however, remain unanswered. Officials still can't say how many of those who signed up have actually paid their premiums, or how many of those who enrolled were previously covered by insurance and how many were uninsured. 
 
 Officials did, however, point to a new Gallup survey finding a reduction in the number of uninsured Americans. 
 
 One thing officials insist on — at least for now — is that they have no plans to extend the current closing date of the open enrollment period from March 31. 
 
 "I think we've been pretty clear that the end of the open enrollment period is March 31," said HHS spokeswoman Julie Battaille, "and you'll see that messaging in a lot of the outreach activities that we are conducting to date." 
 
 Reaction to the January numbers was, not surprisingly, mixed. 
 
 Brian Haile of Jackson-Hewitt, who has been urging officials to move the open enrollment to dates that don't conflict with holiday spending, says the unexpectedly strong January signups prove his point. 
 
 "Given the cash flow pinch at the holidays, most lower- and middle-income consumers wait for their tax refund before they take on new financial obligations," Haile said in a statement. "So the key to enrollment success among low and middle income Americans is to offer products when those consumers have the cash to purchase what is for sale." 
 
 Insurance consultant Robert Laszewski, however, was less impressed. "The feds made a big deal in the release about getting an improved age result," he wrote in an analysis of the numbers. "But the greater challenge for them is the overall low number of people enrolling." ||||| WASHINGTON — Nearly 3.3 million people have signed up for health insurance through the marketplaces established by President Obama’s health care law, and about one-fourth of them are young adults, the administration said Wednesday. 
 
 The administration reported a modest uptick in the enrollment of young adults, a group avidly sought by insurers because they are usually healthier and need fewer costly medical services. 
 
 In a new report on enrollment, the administration said that 1.9 million people had selected health plans in the federal marketplace from October through January, while 1.4 million chose plans in state-run insurance exchanges. 
 
 In January alone, officials said, more than 1.1 million people signed up for insurance in the federal and state exchanges. 
 
 Administration officials said they were pleased with the numbers. “These encouraging trends show that more Americans are enrolling every day, and finding quality, affordable coverage in the marketplace,” said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services. 
 
 “The covered population is getting younger,” Ms. Sebelius said. In January, 318,000 people age 18 to 34 selected health plans, bringing the total in this age group to 807,500, officials said. 
 
 The administration’s goal was to have 4.4 million people signed up by now, according to a memorandum prepared in September by the Department of Health and Human Services. But the federal insurance website, HealthCare.gov, got off to a rocky start, thwarting many people who tried to sign up in October and November. 
 
 The new data show that people buying insurance on the exchanges still tend to be older and potentially less healthy. 
 
 Of those who signed up in the last four months, administration officials said, 53 percent are age 45 to 64 -- down slightly from 55 percent in the first three months. About 25 percent of those choosing a health insurance plan are 18 to 34. This group accounted for 24 percent of those picking plans in the first thee months. 
 
 People 55 to 64 -- the range just below the age at which people qualify for Medicare -- represented the largest group, at 31 percent, down from 33 percent in the months from October through December. 
 
 The open enrollment period continues until March 31, and White House officials predict a surge of applications just before the deadline. 
 
 People who go without insurance after that may be subject to tax penalties, although the Internal Revenue Service has indicated that it prefers public education over aggressive enforcement in the first year of the “individual mandate.” 
 
 After reviewing the new report, Caroline F. Pearson, a vice president of Avalere Health, a research and consulting company, said: "Enrollment in the exchanges appears to be on track to reach roughly six million by the end of March. It is also important that the age mix of enrollees improved in January, relative to the first three months of open enrollment. That supports my hypothesis that the older, sicker enrollees will sign up first, and the younger, healthier people will enroll later.” 
 
 After reviewing the new report, Caroline F. Pearson, a vice president of Avalere Health, a research and consulting company, said: “Enrollment in the exchanges appears to be on track to reach roughly six million by the end of March. It is also important that the age mix of enrollees improved in January, relative to the first three months of open enrollment. That supports my hypothesis that the older, sicker enrollees will sign up first, and the younger, healthier people will enroll later.” 
 
 The administration and its allies are planning a big push to sign up more people, in the hope that total enrollment through the exchanges could reach the administration’s original goal of seven million by the end of March. 
 
 About four-fifths of those choosing health plans to date qualified for financial assistance to help pay their premiums, administration officials said. 
 
 Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said Wednesday that many of “the new enrollees in Obamacare exchange plans are actually folks who were already insured” or eligible for Medicaid. 
 
 Nearly four years after it was signed by Mr. Obama, the Affordable Care Act remains a divisive political issue, and administration officials say that Republican attacks on the law have made it more difficult for them to persuade people to enroll. 
 
 Opinion polls show that people who are uninsured disapprove of the health care law at roughly the same rate as people who have insurance.
– New enrollment data shows that the total number of people who have signed up for ObamaCare remains below target, but the numbers also provide some rare good news for the White House. Some of the odds and ends: January goal met: Last month, 1.1 million people signed up on either a federal or state exchange, beating the target of 1 million. That's a first, reports the Washington Post. Overall figure shy: The new numbers mean that 3.3 million people have signed up since Oct. 1, shy of the goal of 4.4 million for this point, reports the New York Times. (That goal was set before the disastrous website rollout.) More young people: People ages 18 to 34 accounted for 27% of enrollees in January, up from 24% in December, reports NPR. Overall, that means 25% of enrollees are in this crucial age group, well below the administration's goal of 40%. But health chief Kathleen Sebelius sees hope in the uptick: "The covered population is getting younger." More women: They account for 55% of total enrollees at this point. Big picture? "The biggest takeaway here, probably, is that Obamacare is starting to look more and more like the law that the White House had hoped to launch—not the one where technical glitches made it nearly impossible for shoppers to get in the door," writes Sarah Kliff at the Post.