Almost 120,000 Georgians have signed up for 2018 coverage in the state insurance exchange.
The announcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gave the first state-by-state breakdown of sign-ups over three weeks of enrollment in the 39 states that use the federal healthcare.gov exchanges.
The 119,968 enrolling here placed Georgia as fourth-highest among the states listed, behind Florida, Texas and North Carolina.
Bill Custer, a health insurance expert at Georgia State University, said Wednesday that Georgia could come close to equaling the 2017 enrollment total, despite a shorter sign-up period.
Georgia is on pace for about 380,000, Custer said, “but the last couple weeks, we should expect a pickup in enrollment,’’ with sign-ups ending Dec. 15.
About 404,000 began coverage in the exchange in Georgia this year, down from 2016, when 478,000 paid for a plan.