April 10 (Bloomberg) — About 400,000 people signed up for private health insurance under PPACA since a deadline passed that was initially supposed to end enrollment, the U.S. health secretary said today.

While the official enrollment period ended March 31, the Obama administration said that people who tried to sign up before the deadline would have until April 15 to complete their applications. The late enrollees bring the total number to 7.5 million in private health plans, Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services said at a Senate hearing today.

The total enrollment eclipses a Congressional Budget Office estimate of 7 million set last year. Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, called the figure a "false metric" in an opening statement at the hearing, and questioned Sebelius about how many people who signed up under the law previously lacked health insurance.