Aetna says demand surging for individual Obamacare plans

With the deadline approaching for individuals to renew healthcare plans purchased on HealthCare.gov, Aetna has begun to see a surge in customers for 2015, the insurer's new president said on Thursday during a meeting with analysts and investors.

HealthCare.gov has a Dec. 15 deadline for individuals to renew their 2014 plans or select new ones before it will automatically re-enroll them for next year. Enrollment for individual plans is open until Feb. 15, which were created under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare.

Karen Rohan, whose appointment was announced earlier this month, said that the company expects a surge in enrollment over the next few days and that it was "starting to see" that already. Aetna sells these plans in 17 states.

The government has so far provided weekly enrollment data for HealthCare.gov through Dec. 5. In the period from Nov. 15 to Dec. 5, nearly 1.4 million people made plan selections for 2015, including more than 700,000 plan renewals.

In 2014, more than 7 million people enrolled in the new individual plans, created as part of the national healthcare reform law. The government expects more than 9 million people to enroll in the new year.

Aetna currently has about 600,000 customers who have enrolled through either HealthCare.gov, which sells plans in 36 states, or one of the other state run exchanges that make up the balance of the country. It also said it expects this business to grow in 2015.

(Reporting by Caroline Humer; editing by Franklin Paul, G Crosse)