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发帖数: 29846 | 1 A brief history of Obamacare delays
By DAVID NATHER and SUSAN LEVINE | 3/25/14 11:43 PM EDT
Did anyone really doubt that the final Obamacare enrollment deadline would
slip, too?
It’s not like the Obama administration is setting a new precedent with its
latest move — giving customers more time to enroll after next Monday’s
deadline if they’re already in line.
In reality, the administration is just continuing a long pattern of delays.
They’re all designed to show flexibility and help the law work better, but
they also fuel a public perception that Obamacare deadlines never really
mean anything.
(Also on POLITICO: Boehner: Obamacare delay a 'joke')
The administration already went through the same exercise in December,
cutting people some slack if they were stuck in cybertraffic by the deadline
for Jan. 1 coverage. Then and now, administration officials argued that it
’s only fair to give people extra time if they were held up by the volume
of last-minute sign-ups.
But the list of delays covers so much more. The administration has bent
deadlines for the employer mandate (twice), put off the launch of the
Spanish-language enrollment site and even delayed the enrollment season for
2015 — pushing it off until after the November midterm elections.
Working backward, here’s a brief history of some of the most prominent
Obamacare delays:
March 25: Final enrollment deadline extended. The March 31 deadline — the
end of enrollment for 2014 — will be loosened for people with special sign-
up circumstances.
(Also on POLITICO: Full health care policy coverage)
March 14: High-risk pools extended. The special, temporary coverage for
people with serious pre-existing conditions — which was supposed to last
only until the health insurance exchanges were in place — was extended a
third time for another month.
Feb. 10: Employer mandate delayed. This time, businesses with between 50 and
100 workers were given until 2016 to offer coverage, and the mandate will
be phased in for employers with more than 100 workers.
Jan. 14: High-risk pools extended. The high-risk insurance pools, which
originally had been slated to close Jan. 1, had already been extended once.
Dec. 24: Enrollment deadline extended. In a message on HealthCare.gov,
customers were told they could get help finishing their Jan. 1 applications
if they were already in line on Dec. 24.
(PHOTOS: 25 unforgettable Obamacare quotes)
Dec. 12: Enrollment deadline extended. Customers on the federal enrollment
website were given nearly two more weeks to sign up for coverage effective
Jan. 1.
Nov. 27: Small Business Health Options Program (known as SHOP) delayed.
Online enrollment for the federal health insurance exchanges for small
businesses was delayed.
Nov. 21: Open enrollment delayed for 2015. The administration pushed back
next year’s enrollment season by a month.
July 2: Employer mandate delayed. The administration declared that it wouldn
’t enforce the fines in 2014 for businesses with more than 50 full-time
workers who don’t offer health coverage. The fines were pushed back to 2015.
(Also on POLITICO: Honey, I shrunk the mandate)
Nov. 15, 2012: Exchange deadline delayed. The Department of Health and Human
Services gave states an extra month to decide whether they would set up
their own health insurance exchanges — a decision it announced just one day
before the original deadline.
Kyle Cheney and Susan Levine contributed to this report. |
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