TAMPA, Florida The Affordable Care Act clearly isnt dead, as President Donald Trump declared a month ago.

But despite some surprisingly large sign-up numbers for the first two weeks of open enrollment, its way too early to tell just how big a toll Trumps war on the program has taken or how many people will end up with insurance by Dec. 15, the deadline for obtaining 2018 coverage.

Thats what youll hear from most experts who follow the issue closely. Its also what youll hear from people like Jodi Ray, who is the project director for Florida Covering Kids and Families , a nonprofit that has spearheaded state efforts to get residents health insurance under Obamacare.

Ray has been there since the programs beginning, going back to late 2013, when the website didnt work, and when a combination of plan cancellations and sudden rate hikes sparked an uproar. For a while, it looked like the whole system might just fall apart. It didnt, of course, and Florida would go on to have some of the largest signup numbers of any state in the country.

This year, Ray says, interest in plans seems even stronger.

She says shes seen it at her office and at walk-in enrollment events, like one at the University of South Florida on Wednesday, where a group of navigators (the Affordable Care Acts official enrollment advisors) kept busy with a steady stream of consumers all morning long.

Ray has heard similar accounts from her contacts around the state including enrollment counselors in the small, rural counties that are traditionally the hardest for organizations like hers to reach. They said this year, they have been busier than they have ever been, which astonishes me.

The numbers tell a similar story. Through the first two weeks, 1.5 million people signed up for private insurance through HealthCare.gov, the Department of Health and Human Services reported on Wednesday. Thats roughly 50 percent more than last years sign-ups after two weeks.