Things are going so well for Obamacare that the administration has decided, at the very last minute, to extend the deadline to sign-up for Jan1st coverage through the end of Christmas Eve. As WSJ reports [5], this change - which follows weeks of last-minute policy shifts - gives young people and the uninsured 24 more valuable hours to decide but, as we have previously noted, initial sign-up tallies are falling dramatically short of expectations.
Via WSJ, [5]
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The deadline was originally set for midnight on Dec. 23, but contractors managing the site changed configurations to allow users to sign up for the first wave of health-law coverage through Dec. 24, people familiar with the matter said.
The change follows weeks of last-minute policy shifts for the administration. Last week, for instance, with only days before the enrollment deadline, the Obama administration said people whose plans were canceled would be exempted from a requirement that people buy coverage or pay a fee next year.
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The late changes have rattled insurers and left some customers uncertain what options are available to them. Some health insurers say the changes could undermine their market by obscuring their ability to predict business risks and set prices accurately.
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But initial sign-up tallies are expected to fall far short of expectations: Only 365,000 people nationwide navigated through technologically troubled online marketplaces to enroll in private plans in October and November. On Friday, President Obama told reporters a million more had enrolled in the first weeks of December, but the totals still fall short of a 3.5 million-enrollee target for the private plans by the year's end.
Of course, with the pitchman-in-chief busy on the links, we wonder how much difference this will make...