Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, who next year is expected to chair the Finance Committee––which supervises Burwell’s department––called the government’s handling of enrollment numbers “creative accounting.”

“Despite claims by this White House that the health law and its execution have been transparent, the facts continue to tell a different story,” he said. “The American people deserve better.”

‘Attack Point’

Administration allies, while dismayed, said the error shouldn’t overshadow the law’s success at expanding insurance coverage.

“Dear HHS: Your numbers are perfectly fine, so stop jerking me around,” Charles Gaba, a blogger in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, titled a post today. Gaba supports the Affordable Care Act and has accurately estimated enrollment under the law known as Obamacare.

“You’ve taken data you should be proud of and turned it into yet another attack point for the GOP, right when the ACA is still on shaky ground,” Gaba said in his blog post, addressing the health department.

Ron Pollack, the executive director of Families USA and a supporter of the law, agreed the health department’s revisions of the enrollment numbers “may affect how the public may view things.”

“I’m sure it has some impact,” he said in a phone interview.

In the long run, point-in-time enrollment figures provide little information and shouldn’t be used to judge the Affordable Care Act’s success, he said. He instead watches the proportion of Americans without insurance, which has fallen about 4 percentage points this year to 13.4 percent, according to Gallup Inc.

“The data I think is most significant is what is happening with respect to the uninsured,” he said. Whether 7.1 million or 6.7 million, monthly data on enrollment in private plans under the law “doesn’t tell you a whole lot,” he said.

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