More than 6 million consumers have purchased health care coverage in Obamacare’s federal exchanges, the administration said Tuesday.

Out of the 6.4 million total as of Dec. 19, nearly 2 million of them gained coverage for the first time. The government data includes sign-ups through Healthcare.gov and not from state exchanges. PPACA’s state exchanges have reported about 1 million signups so far.

The tally is a big jump from the 2.5 million figure reported last week.

PPACA’s increasing enrollment number is helped by the number of auto-renewals in plans for the second year. HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said about two-thirds of consumers were auto-enrolled.

A swarm of signups was expected by Dec. 15, the deadline for consumers to enroll in a plan to get coverage by Jan. 1.

The Obama administration’s goal for 2015 is to get 9.1 million customers in plans sold under the law. Consulting firm Avalere Health predicts that the administration will exceed that number, estimating that 10.5 million will purchase coverage via the exchanges.

“We still have a lot of work to do before the Feb. 15 deadline, but this is an encouraging start,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said in a statement.

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PPACA enrollment hits 6.4 million

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