Covered CA offers four more days to finish Obamacare enrollments

Jan. 31--As it has every year since it started selling Obamacare policies in 2013, Covered California has added a little padding to its open enrollment deadline, announcing Tuesday that it will give an extra four days to complete applications to anyone who started the process by the end of the day.

This maneuver has become common on the last day of January as the health exchange sees droves of applicants suddenly show interest in the plans it sells just as time runs out to pick a policy.

In a statement, Peter Lee, Covered California's director, said anyone who started the enrollment process by midnight Tuesday will have until Feb. 4 to finish.

"Experience tell us that people wait until the last day to sign up for health insurance, and we do not want to leave anyone behind.

This year, however, is very different than any other the exchange has navigated. With President Donald Trump signing an executive order on his first day in office for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services "to seek the prompt repeal" of the Affordable Care Act, the entire system that covers about 1.3 million Californians is in a sort of legislative limbo.

Legislators have vowed to repeal and replace the wide-reaching health law but have not yet specified how they will do so. Previous defunding attempts deflected by former President Barack Obama have offered current enrollees at least a one-year grace period, meaning current policyholders would still be covered for at least the remaining year.

Covered California has continued to operate under the assumption that, whatever plan Congress eventually adopts, it will hold current enrollees harmless, a principle that statements by the President seem to reinforce.

Those who meet Obamacare's income guidelines can qualify for significant subsidies from the federal government which, according to Covered California, allow "50 percent of consumers to get a Silver plan for less than $100 per month."

If the government were to stop paying these subsidies, Covered California enrollees could drop their plans by simply failing to pay the next month's premium, a move that would limit their exposure to unsubsidized premiums at the cost of losing their health coverage.

paul.sisson@sduniountribune.com

(619) 293-1850

Twitter: @paulsisson

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