Ken Lovett is reporting for the Daily News enrollment in health plans through the state health insurance exchange is ahead of the pace last year, the state Health Department announced December 5. With 10 days until the December 15 registration deadline for 2019 coverage, 930,000 New Yorkers have enrolled or renewed coverage in the Essential or a Qualified Health Plan. Already there are 51,000 more people newly enrolled than this time last year. The overwhelming majority of people already enrolled or renewed have signed up for the Essential Plan, a state-run and federally funded plan with premiums of no more than $20 a month for anyone making up to twice the federal poverty level. “In New York, the idea the Obamacare marketplace is on the verge of collapse obviously isn’t true,” Bill Hammond, health policy director for the Empire Center For Public Policy, said. “People still need insurance and they’re still happy to have this as an option.” Read the full story in the Daily News.