The Trump administration is allowing some leeway for last-minute Obamacare customers who were not able to sign up for health insurance in time for healthcare.gov’s Friday deadline.
Customers were permitted to leave their names if they couldn’t get through to the call center on healthcare.gov’s last day because of high volume. Those customers will still be able to enroll after the deadline when they receive a call back, and their coverage will begin Jan. 1, 2018.
It’s busy at our call center today! If you call and are asked to leave your name and phone number, please do so. A call center rep will call you back after Dec 15 to make sure you have Marketplace coverage that starts Jan 1. You may also visit https://t.co/eTfU7hBbyh to enroll.
— HealthCare.gov (@HealthCareGov) December 15, 2017
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stopped short of announcing a grace period, as the agency had done on deadline day under the Obama administration in 2015 and 2016 following high demand.
Enrollment staff working through the healthcare.gov Twitter handle said there would be “no extension” and the healthcare.gov website on Saturday morning carried a message that read, “2018 Open Enrollment is over.” It had guidance for customers who might qualify for Medicaid and gave examples of how some customers might still be able to enroll under a special enrollment period. This is permitted if someone’s circumstances have changed, including getting divorced, having a baby, or moving.
Sorry, no extension. But if you call the Call Center and it asks for your name/number please do so. A representative will call you back after tonight and make sure you get coverage starting Jan 1. 800-318-2596
— HealthCare.gov (@HealthCareGov) December 16, 2017
The deadline to pick a health plan was midnight PST on Friday. Nine states that have their own exchanges, including California and New York, have later deadlines.
As of Dec. 9, nearly 4.7 million people had signed up for coverage through healthcare.gov, the exchange that most states use.
A surge in customers is expected close to the deadline each open enrollment, and if existing customers do not choose a new plan, cancel their coverage, or actively renew a policy, they are automatically re-enrolled in the same plan. If their plan is no longer offered, they are put in a similar policy but have until March 1 to make changes.
Last year, open enrollment lasted 90 days, but the Trump administration cut the period in half, a move that the Obama administration had set to occur a year later, during the 2018 open enrollment.
