The rate of signups for health insurance on Arizona’s Affordable Care Act marketplace is up from last year.

Enrollment for healthcare.gov plans are running 26 percent ahead of last year at the same time. Federal numbers show about 51,000 people have selected insurance coverage so far in the state.

Allen Gjersvig, whose nonprofit helps people buy coverage, said it’s hard to predict if more people will ultimately sign up than last year given that the window of time has been cut down to 45 days.

Those who had plans this year will be automatically re-enrolled and Gjersvig said that could bump up the final figures significantly.

“There could be a very large percent of people who choose to just auto enroll and that’s kind of like the X factor,” he said.

A report from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that nationally more than half of those who are uninsured and eligible could pay less overall in premiums than if they went without insurance and paid the penalty.