Obama Grants Six Week Extension for Healthcare Signup

The White House has granted a six week waiver for Americans to sign up for the Obamacare program. The policy change allows people who sign up by March 31 to avoid a tax penalty.

The previous deadline required that people sign up by the middle of February so that insurance coverage would kick in for March 1. 

The problem was that health insurance coverage typically starts on the first day of a given month, and it takes up to 15 days to process applications. So somebody signing up March 16 – well within the open enrollment period – wouldn’t get coverage until April 1, thereby risking a penalty for being uninsured part of the year.

On Monday evening, the Obama administration released a statement explaining that has “determined that it would be unfair to require individuals in this situation to make a (penalty) payment.”