It is no surprise that Congressional Republicans are seizing on problems with the federal health insurance website as reason to delay by a year the deadline for enrolling in new plans under the Affordable Care Act. It is their latest ploy to disable a law that they have tried repeatedly to repeal.
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Postponing the deadline for enrollment would create havoc for the insurance plans that have set their costs based on a March 31, 2014, deadline — and possibly increase insurance premiums the following year and beyond. This won't happen if the Democrat-controlled Senate refuses to go along or the White House vetoes a delay. But it is disturbing that a group of 10 Senate Democrats sent a letter on Friday to Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, asking for an extension of the enrollment deadline past March 31 if substantial technical problems persist. There is no evidence yet that a delay would be needed five months from now.
Under the law, consumers who want their coverage to start on January 1 have to enroll by mid-December. If they want their coverage to start later in 2014, they must enroll by March 31. If they miss that date, an uninsured adult would have to pay a penalty of $95 or 1 percent of applicable income, whichever is higher.
The website — HealthCare.gov — will probably be more operational by the first deadline. Jeffrey Zients, the troubleshooter appointed to fix the site by President Obama, told reporters on Friday that by the end of November the portal "will work smoothly for the vast majority of users." That's enough time for anyone who has not enrolled to compare and choose a policy by mid-December. (Some state websites are working properly and have already enrolled thousands of people.) Even if Mr. Zients is overly optimistic, the March deadline is five months away and it is almost inconceivable that the site won't be fixed by then.
It better be. It is crucial that enough younger, healthier people enroll to help subsidize the costs of older, sicker people. Most of the early enrollees may be chronically ill people who couldn't get coverage from insurers or were charged exorbitant premiums. Healthier, younger people, whose participation is needed to broaden the risk pool, may wait to enroll at the last minute.
Any delay past March 31 would disrupt the basis on which premiums were set for the new policies going into effect next year. The insurers have assumed that everyone would be required to have coverage by March 31. If the enrollment period is extended for a significant period, the sickest people are most likely to sign up early and the healthiest will likely hang back, driving up the costs for insurers and making premium increases likely the following year.
Consumers will be able learn what policies and subsidies are available, either from the federal website, telephone call centers or counselors trained to guide them through the process, from state governments, or directly from private insurers. Meanwhile, there is no need for despair. In the long run, the technical problems can and will be fixed and most Americans will be better off.
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