Ezekiel Emanuel: Obamacare Enrollment Will Hit 6.8 Million

One of the primary architects of Obamacare predicted the final enrollment number for healthcare insurance after Monday's deadline would come close to the original White House estimate of 7 million.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, former White House adviser for health policy, expected the final tally to hit 6.8 million. He based the prediction on a Michigan web developer.

"The best website is this place called ACAsignup.net. And the guy is a web developer in Michigan and has been the most accurate person so far. His prediction today is 6.78 million. And it's going to be in that range," Emanuel told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday.

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Of the people who signed up, Emanuel said about 83 percent had paid their premiums. He said the numbers looked healthy "given two months of a terrible website."

"I think, actually, the administration can be comfortable," Emanuel said.

Of those who enrolled in Obamacare, Emanuel guessed healthy people would probably total around 28 percent — enough to "keep the rates sufficiently stable."

Emanuel explained that after the rocky Obamacare rollout, the administration was "beginning to know the characteristics of a good" website.

"It's actually working. And so that's, I think, another real surprise, that they really have the website working mechanically, in terms of server capacity and all of that," he said.

When "Morning Joe" co-host Willie Geist pointed out the website was down as of midnight Sunday, Emanuel laughed and said it had been working when he logged in Sunday at 10 p.m.

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