After years of discussions, the Affordable Care Act — a federal healthcare law we've all come to know as Obamacare — is set to take full effect in less than two weeks. Individuals seeking coverage when the law begins on Jan. 1, however, need to sign up by Monday.
President Barack Obama, at a Friday news conference, said the federal insurance marketplace Healthcare.gov has seen a recent surge in enrollment. The looming deadline is one reason for the bump in enrollment, but another likely cause is that the site's functionality has improved since its disastrous launch on Oct. 1.
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"I now have a couple million people, maybe more, who are going to have healthcare on January first," Obama said. "That is a big deal. That's why I ran for this office."
Obama said that each day "tens of thousands" of Americans are signing up for plans using the federal exchange, which serves 36 states. More than half a million have used the site to enroll during December. Comparatively, there were about 26,000 successful enrollments during Healthcare.gov's entire first month in operation.
Despite the surge, millions more are eligible for coverage under the new law and have not yet signed up. That could leave the federal and state-specific sites straining as the deadline approaches. Of course, website strain is one of the main reasons enrollment is behind projections to begin with. "The healthcare website problems were a source of great frustration," Obama said.
The Obama administration has relaxed some of the new law's stipulations in attempt to accommodate millions whose old insurance plans have been canceled due to the new law. (Most were plans that insurance companies knew would be cancelled, but continued to offer anyway.) Those people will be able to buy "bare-bones" plans or forego the regular penalties for not being insured in 2014, the Washington Post reports.
Eligible Americans who miss the Dec. 23 deadline can still buy an insurance plan for later in 2014. The open enrollment period lasts until March 31.
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