Sign-Up Period Extended Again for Health Plan

WASHINGTON ? The Obama administration said Tuesday that it would provide more time for people to complete their applications for health insurance if they could show that they missed the Tuesday deadline because of problems with the federal health care website.

The move is the latest in a series of deadline changes, exemptions and clarifications that have confused insurers and many Americans and opened the administration to increasing criticism from Republicans who have opposed the Affordable Care Act from the start and have repeatedly tried to overturn it.

It was unclear on Tuesday how many people would be affected, or how anyone who has tried, but failed, to sign up on the federal insurance exchange would qualify for the additional time being offered.

The announcement itself was vague, saying only that if website problems had prevented any consumers from signing up, they might qualify for what the government has called “a special enrollment period.” The administration did not say how long that would last.

Republicans said the announcement ? coming a day after the federal website recorded more than two million visits ? showed that President Obama was desperate to increase enrollment, widely seen as a measure of the success of the health care law.

For their part, administration officials said the move was a common-sense response to heavy traffic on the website, which they cited as evidence of a huge need for more affordable insurance. Some 48 million Americans are uninsured. Many could qualify for subsidized coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Tara McGuinness, a White House spokeswoman, said the administration was not providing “a blanket extension,” but was offering to provide “assistance to individuals on a case-by-case basis.”

And Kurt DelBene, the new troubleshooter for the site, said it was “performing well under intense consumer traffic.”

“With the highest volumes we have seen to date, response time is fast, and the error rate is low,” he said.

The move did not mollify insurers who have grown concerned as new problems have erupted since the rollout on Oct. 1 and are worried about how they will be able to provide coverage for everyone who wants it by Jan. 1, when that coverage is supposed to go into effect.

“The goal posts keep moving,” William G. Schiffbauer, a lawyer who represents insurance companies, said Tuesday evening. “That raises questions about whether insurers can collect premiums in a timely manner to pay claims from doctors and hospitals.”

“The latest step creates confusion for consumers and insurers,” he added.

The administration did not define what website errors might be involved, nor did it say what evidence consumers would need to produce to show they had been thwarted by the site. Moreover, health officials said they did not know how many people might take advantage of the opportunity publicized on the website.

The open enrollment period continues to March 31. People who select health plans on the federal exchange starting Wednesday and continuing through Jan. 15 will generally be entitled to coverage that takes effect on Feb. 1, provided they pay their share of the first month’s premium before then.

The new offer to consumers who have had trouble with the website followed a last-minute surge of interest among people seeking coverage, and the administration hailed what it described as “amazing interest” in new health insurance options.

The original deadline for coverage starting Jan. 1 was Dec. 15. On Nov. 22, the deadline was extended to Dec. 23. On Monday, the White House provided a 24-hour grace period, to 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday.

Then on Tuesday, in a bid to ensure coverage for all who want it, the administration provided details of the “special enrollment period” for some people ? but not all of them ? who miss the deadline.

“If you weren’t able to enroll in an insurance plan by Dec. 23 because of problems you had using HealthCare.gov, you still may be able to get coverage that starts Jan. 1,” the administration told visitors to the website in a message posted on the health insurance blog at HealthCare.gov. The message also highlighted the assistance available to shoppers.

“Couldn’t enroll by December 23?” it said. “We can still help you get covered.”

“Even though we have passed the December 23 enrollment deadline for coverage starting January 1, we don’t want you to miss out if you’ve been trying to enroll,” the administration said. “Sometimes despite your best efforts, you might have run into delays caused by heavy traffic to HealthCare.gov, maintenance periods or other issues with our systems that prevented you from finishing the process on time. If this happened to you, don’t worry ? we still may be able to help you get covered as soon as January 1.”

If consumers want to plead their case, the administration said, they can call a special number (800-318-2596) and explain the circumstances of why they could not sign up in time.

“Tell our customer service representative that you’ve been trying to enroll and explain why you couldn’t finish by the deadline,” the website advises consumers. “They can tell you what you can do to finish your enrollment and still get covered for 2014.”

The administration did not set a deadline for such requests. The call center is normally open around the clock but is closed on Christmas Day, officials said.

Ms. McGuinness said there were “10,000 call center workers working tonight on Christmas Eve to get people health insurance before the final deadline.” Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said that people who had had problems with the website before Tuesday could receive “individual assistance” if they contacted the federal call center.

In its effort to help consumers and to avoid political damage to the president, the administration has announced a series of policy changes, delays, extensions and clarifications in recent months.

Taken together, they amount to a sweeping exercise of executive power ? what Prof. Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law School describes as a “pattern of circumventing Congress in the creation of new major standards, exceptions or outright nullifications.”

In July, the White House deferred, until 2015, a requirement for larger employers to offer coverage to employees or pay penalties. In mid-November, Mr. Obama asked insurers to reinstate policies being canceled because they did not comply with minimum coverage requirements of the law.

A week later the administration extended the initial deadline for people to sign up for coverage that starts in January. A few days later health officials announced a one-year delay in online enrollment for small businesses using the federal insurance exchange. The administration then moved the sign-up deadline for individuals to Dec. 23 and extended by one month, to the end of January, a special insurance program for people with serious illnesses.

Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health, announced last week that people facing the cancellation of individual insurance policies could buy cheaper catastrophic coverage on the exchange and would be exempt from penalties if they went without insurance next year.