More than 8.25 million consumers have utilized the Healthcare.gov federal health insurance marketplace. One cause for the increased enrollment or renewals spike is millennials.

During a press conference call, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell revealed approximately 8.25 million people have enrolled or renewed their health insurance plan through Healthcare.gov, which was implemented by the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare."

As Latin Post reported, 2.4 million enrollees are new consumers from the latest, and ongoing, third open enrollment period.

Based on data up to Dec. 17, which served as the Healthcare.gov's December deadline for enrollees seeking insurance to start on Jan. 1, 2016, nearly 2.1 million people below the age of 35 have selected a plan. Burwell said the aforementioned figure is 1 million more people than had enrolled at the same time last year.

In a statement emailed to Latin Post, Anne Filipic, president of Enroll America, a health care enrollment coalition, said the 2.1 million enrollees under 35-years-old represent an impressive figure.

"These numbers clearly demonstrate that as enrollment continues to grow, the demographic makeup of the marketplace enrollee pool continues to evolve as well," Filipic said.

"We are encouraged by the strong start we experienced in the first half of Open Enrollment for 2016 coverage, and know we have ongoing work to do. We are focused on making sure families looking for coverage understand their options through the Marketplace, know about the financial assistance available, and have access to the support they need to enroll," said Burwell in a statement.

Most of Obamacare's enrollment, regardless of age, came from Florida and Texas, coincidentally two states with significantly dense Latino populations. Taking into account all ethnicities from the third open enrollment period, which started on Nov. 1, Floridians accounted for more than 1.5 million plan selections, ahead of the 1.04 million from Texas. North Carolina, which has seen a growing Latino population, ranked third with more than 544,000 plan selections.

The third open enrollment's final deadline is Jan. 31, 2016.

Along with Florida, North Carolina and Texas, Healthcare.gov functions in more than 30 other states, including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Anyone who remains uninsured for 2016 may encounter a fine of 2.5 percent of their yearly income or $695 -- whichever is the larger amount for the uninsured. The fine is $347.50 per child under 18 years old.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Politics Editor Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.

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