The Obama administration late last week announced two more delayed deadlines under the healthcare reform law.
HHS said that Americans who want to make sure they have health coverage effective Jan. 1, 2014, will have eight extra days to enroll, extending the deadline to Dec. 23. With enrollment still obstructed by problems with the federal government's online portal, that additional time could be particularly welcome for currently insured people who have ongoing medical care needs and can't afford any gaps in coverage.
In addition, HHS delayed the start of open enrollment for 2015 by one month, to Nov. 15, 2014. The open enrollment period will last until Jan. 15, 2015, rather than Dec. 7, 2014.
The delay will give insurers more time to analyze their 2014 enrollee risk pool and calculate 2015 premiums. Previously, companies would have had to submit their 2015 rates by the end of this coming April, which would have given them little time to make actuarially sound assessments after the 2014 open-enrollment period closes on March 31. Now firms will have an additional month to calculate their rates, according to an HHS official.
Republicans quickly accused the White House of playing politics by delaying open enrollment and the release of 2015 premium rates until after the November 2014 election. Observers say it would be a big political problem for congressional Democrats if 2015 rates soar.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Zients, who is heading the administration's repair efforts on the HealthCare.gov enrollment website, promised again Friday that “the vast majority of users will be able to use the site smoothly (by Nov. 30), and we're on target for that.” He said the site will be capable of handling more than 800,000 visitors a day. The average time it takes for a page to load on the site, he said, is now less than 1 second and error rates are now down to 0.75%.
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