Midnight on Monday was the deadline for individuals without insurance to be enrolled in ObamaCare. Over the weekend, however, the Obama Administration quietly made changes to the exchanges, providing an additional day to enroll in ObamaCare, according to the Washington Post. Now, if an individual signs up for coverage by midnight Christmas Eve, they reportedly will have health coverage on January 1st.
The December 23rd deadline was already a delay. Under the ObamaCare law passed by Congress, individuals had to be signed up for coverage by December 15th to be assured of having insurance on January 1. The insurance companies need the interval to process applications, obtain additional information, if necessary, and process payments.
The complete failure of the ObamaCare exchanges prompted the Administration to push the deadline back 8 days. Now, it seems, the Administration is carving out for itself one extra day, presumably to deal with any traffic issues with the exchange websites. The additional delay, however, puts extra pressure on the insurance companies to properly process coverage applications.
This is the 15th unilateral change Obama has made to the Congressionally passed law. It most likely won’t be his last.