Glitches on the Obamacare website have forced the Department of Health and Human Services to extend the deadline to enroll in 2015 healthcare plans by at least a week, according to reports.
Politico reports that the deadline, which initially was Sunday night, is now Feb. 22 for people who were trying to enroll in a plan but were unable to because of problems with the website or long hold times at the call center.
Most states are putting similar policies in place, according to Politico.
Democrat lawmakers are also
pushing for another special enrollment period centered around the April 15 tax filing deadline. People who must pay a fine for not having insurance during 2014 and who are facing a similar situation in 2015 would be eligible for this.
A recent report claimed
6 million American taxpayers could owe the IRS as much as 1 percent of their 2014 income because they were not covered by a healthcare plan last year.
Before the original Sunday deadline, HHS claimed 10 million people had either signed up for new plans or had re-enrolled on federal or state Obamacare exchanges, according to Politico. Democrats hope those numbers would increase if an April sign-up period is approved.
On Saturday, the day before the deadline,
HealthCare.gov was slowed by a computer glitch that did not let some customers finish their applications.
The Obamacare website was plagued with issues during the first three months of open enrollment in the fall of 2013. Only 2.2 million people were able to sign up for 2014 plans during that period.
The website problems were eventually repaired and the Obama administration claimed about 9.5 million people were able to get coverage.
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