By The Washington PostWith three days remaining in most of the country to buy Affordable Care Act coverage for 2018, enrollment is running ahead of the same time last year but is almost sure to fall short in the end because of a compressed enrollment season.

During each of the six weeks of this sign-up period, the number of consumers choosing plans through the federal HealthCare.gov website has outmatched that of 2017, according to a federal enrollment snapshot released on Wednesday. And the overall sign-ups of nearly 4.7 million through last Saturday was about 650,000 higher than through the parallel week a year ago.

Source: Enrollment in ACA health plans ahead of last year, but sign-up chance dwindling