Affordable Care Act March 31 Deadline Will be Given an Extension

The open enrollment period to sign up for a health insurance plan through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces officially ended on Monday.

More than 6 million Americans have already signed up for insurance coverage through online “marketplaces” created by the law, federal officials said on Thursday.

Earlier last week, the Obama administration said that Americans who’ve started applying for health insurance but can’t complete
the process by the March 31 deadline will be given an extension.

Administration officials said the extension was being offered partly out of concern that the federal online registration website, Healthcare.gov, could become overwhelmed as last-minute registrants scrambled to meet the original March 31 deadline or face a penalty in the form of a tax.

And that seemed to be the case early Monday morning as the website struggled with high user traffic. Some visitors to HealthCare.gov were met with messages that the site was down for maintenance. At times, visitors were sent to a virtual waiting room — a feature created to ease the strain on the site during periods of heavy demand, the Associated Press reported.