�鶹Ů��

Federal regulators Thursday night extended the midnight deadline for Affordable Care Act insurance by four days, as consumers fought to get through to call center operators and log onto Healthcare.gov to buy insurance that takes effect Jan. 1. "Nearly a million consumers have left their contact information to hold their place in line," Healthcare.gov CEO Kevin Counihan said in a statement late Thursday. "Our goal is to provide affordable coverage to everyone seeking it before the deadline, and these two additional business days will give consumers an opportunity to come back and complete their enrollment for January 1 coverage.” (O'Donnell, 12/16)

The unexpected extension was announced after close of business Thursday. Counihan said it's due to strong interest. The old deadline was Thursday. The Obama administration has set a goal of signing up 13.8 million people for 2017, a modest increase. So far enrollment is running about on par with last year, but the share of new customers is down. (12/16)

Federal health officials announced Thursday night that they have extended the deadline for consumers to sign up for Jan. 1 coverage through Affordable Care Act marketplaces, giving them until the end of Monday night to enroll. The announcement marked the second consecutive year that federal officials granted insurance-seekers a little extra time beyond the Dec. 15 deadline. (Goldstein, 12/15)

The Obama administration is again giving people more time to sign up for healthcare coverage for next year because of “extraordinary” demand, health officials announced late Thursday. “The final days heading into the December 15 deadline were some of the busiest we’ve experienced at HealthCare.gov,” the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) wrote in a statement, without providing specific numbers. Customers will now have two extra days – until midnight on Monday, Dec. 19 – to buy coverage that will go into effect on Jan 1. (Ferris, 12/15)

Health officials extended Obamacare's Dec. 15 deadline by four days due to "extraordinary volume of consumers" visiting or calling healthcare.gov, they announced Thursday evening. The new deadline for consumers who want their health coverage to kick in on Jan. 1 is Dec. 19, 11:59 p.m. PST. (Miller, 12/15)

The open enrollment period for individual-market health plans runs through Jan. 31, but people who sign up after Saturday won’t have coverage until Feb. 1 at the earliest. The deadline for coverage that starts Feb. 1 is Jan. 15; those who sign up between Jan. 15 and Jan. 31 will get coverage that begins March 1. (Levin Becker, 12/15)

High volume caused an hourlong outage on the Connect for Health Colorado website Thursday, the last day for people to sign up for plans through the state’s Obamacare exchange in order to have health care coverage that kicks in on Jan. 1. The outage began at about 7 a.m., said Luke Clarke, a spokesman for Connect for Health Colorado. The website was back up around 8 a.m., he said. (Ingold, 12/15)