White House extends Obamacare deadline, admits subsidy snafu - Yahoo Finance

 

Bowing to pressure, the Obama administration is extending Obamacare enrollment for those who learn they owe a penalty for being uninsured in 2014.

Officials also acknowledged that some 800,000 Obamacare enrollees received incorrect subsidy information on the 1095-A tax forms sent by the federal exchange, healthcare.gov. Some enrollees were mistakenly told they received too large a subsidy, while others were told their subsidy was too small.

The special enrollment period, which runs from March 15 to April 30, is open to those who remain uninsured now and who learned they owe the penalty after open enrollment ended on Feb. 15. It applies to those in the 37 states using the federal exchange, though Washington, Minnesota and Vermont have already extended enrollment for penalty payers. Other states, including California, are considering similar moves.

Some 44% likely to be penalized for not having coverage had heard nothing or only a little about the fee, according to a new survey from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute.

Many of the uninsured are learning they owe the penalty for 2014 when they file their taxes. This is prompting some to want to enroll for this year, when the penalty is even larger. But since enrollment closed on Sunday, they were out of luck.

White House extends Obamacare deadline, admits subsidy snafu - Yahoo Finance