Administration weighs special ObamaCare enrollment period

The Obama administration is closely considering whether to give the public another chance to sign up for ObamaCare after the deadline, as calls from allies grow for a special enrollment period. 

{mosads}The Department of Health and Human Services says it is weighing whether to allow an enrollment period around tax filing season. Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said on Friday that the decision would come within two weeks. 

Proponents say that many people will not realize until tax-filing time that they have to pay a penalty for not having health insurance. Without an extra enrollment period, they would be unable to sign up at that point, because the deadline passed on Sunday.

HHS officials had previously said that they were focused on signing up people before the Feb. 15 deadline. Now that the date has come and gone, the possibility of an extra period is gaining attention.  

This week, 10 Democratic senators, along with Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine) released a letter to Burwell calling on the administration to create the extra period.

“Such a special enrollment period would increase coverage in affordable private health insurance and reduce the costs that the uninsured pass along to the insured,” the senators wrote.

Similarly, Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), and Sandy Levin (Mich.), the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, wrote to “strongly urge” the administration to create the period. 

“A prompt announcement by [the administration] — free of any confusing delays or exceptions — will greatly benefit taxpayers as well as the many organizations across the country working to help people enroll,” Doggett said in a statement. 

The calls are also coming from outside Congress. Families USA, a pro-ObamaCare advocacy group, backs the move. 

“Such a special enrollment period is the fair thing to do for consumers,” Ron Pollack, the group’s executive director, said in a statement, adding that the period “turns an otherwise frustrating experience into an educational opportunity and a chance to get health insurance coverage.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimated in April that by 2016, as many as 4 million people will be paying a penalty for not having insurance, bringing in $4 billion.  

People without insurance, who do not qualify for an exemption if insurance is unaffordable, will already have to pay a penalty for going without coverage in 2014. Without a new sign-up period, they will also be stuck paying the penalty for at least part of 2015. 

The penalty increases this year to $325 per adult or 2 percent of family income, whichever is greater.