(Bloomberg) -- About 11.7 million Americans signed up for Obamacare or renewed their coverage for 2015, slightly more than previously announced, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said.

The total suggests enrollment may surpass the administration’s goal in the second year of the program even as a pending Supreme Court case challenges the tax subsidies that underpin the law.

“We are finally moving the needle on reducing the number of uninsured,” Burwell said Monday at the White House. “These numbers represent real people whose lives have changed for the better.”

Enrollment closed Feb. 15 for coverage through plans offered on the marketplace created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. The administration reported 11.4 million enrollees in a preliminary report Feb. 17.

People signing up for insurance must pay their first premium to complete enrollment and gain coverage. President Barack Obama’s administration hopes to have at least 9.1 million people paying for coverage bought through government-run marketplaces this year.

Enrollment numbers will continue to shift throughout the year, Burwell said. The announced total is as of Feb. 27, she added.

Court case

Many of those people could be affected by a lawsuit challenging payment of tax credits the law provides to subsidize insurance premiums in 34 states that haven’t set up their own exchanges and instead are relying on the federal government.

The fight centers on four words. The law says people qualify for tax credits to help pay insurance premiums when they buy a plan on an exchange “established by the state.”

Challengers say that phrase limits the tax credits to the 16 states that have set up their own online exchanges for people to buy insurance. Democrats who wrote the law say it was never their intent to deny subsidies to people in federally run exchanges.

Eighty-seven percent of current enrollees qualify for a tax credit, averaging $263 per month, Burwell said.

The Supreme Court heard arguments on the case last week and is expected to issue a ruling by the end of its annual session in June.

--With assistance from Alex Wayne in Washington.

Instant Insights /

PPACA enrolls 11.7 million

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