(Bloomberg) -- About 11.7 million Americans signed up forObamacare or renewed their coverage for 2015, slightly more thanpreviously announced, Health and Human Services Secretary SylviaMathews Burwell said.

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

“We are finally moving the needle on reducing the number ofuninsured,” Burwell said Monday at the WhiteHouse. “These numbers represent real people whose lives havechanged for the better.”

Enrollment closed Feb. 15 for coverage through plansoffered on the marketplace created by the Patient Protection andAffordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. The administrationreported 11.4 million enrollees in a preliminary report Feb.17.

People signing up for insurance must pay their first premium tocomplete enrollment and gain coverage. President Barack Obama’sadministration hopes to have at least 9.1 million people paying forcoverage 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 challengingpayment of tax credits the law provides to subsidize insurancepremiums in 34 states that haven’t set up their own exchanges andinstead are relying on the federal government.

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

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

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

The Supreme Court heard arguments on the case last week and isexpected to issue a ruling by the end of its annual session inJune.

--With assistance from Alex Wayne in Washington.

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