When Will Obamacare Enrollment Close?
When I last wrote about Obamacare’s open enrollment (on January 23), I promised readers that I would not write about it again until open season had wrapped up.
I thought we’d be there by now. After all, it was supposed to close on February 15.
No such luck. First, because of glitches in the website and other hassles, the federal government and some states extended open season by one week.
Now, the Administration has been caught by surprise by April 15, tax day. The problem seems to be that six million Americans will be required to pay the (unconstitutional) fine for not having bought Obamacare insurance in 2014. Unfortunately, 40 percent of adults are unaware of the penalty.
So, millions will be caught by surprise when the IRS receives their tax return, learns that they do not comply with Obamacare, and get penalized. It would be too late for them to enroll in Obamacare for 2015, if they had not already.
They used to say that ignorance of the law was no excuse. However, because Obamacare is not a “law” by any reasonable definition, the Administration has decided to give these folks a mulligan, and allow them to enroll between March 15 and April 30.
Until recently, I had been getting nervous about my September 2014 prediction that the second open season would be awful. Now, I am feeling vindicated.
At the rate things are going, I may be able to write my post-mortem for Obamacare’s second open season by Independence Day.
I predict the ObamaCare exchanges will ultimately remain open year-round. That way, people won’t need to enroll until they get sick. (I’m being sarcastic but I can almost imagine this actually happening).
> ‘Obamacare is not a “law” by any reasonable definition’
True, I think of the term ‘Obamacare’ as encompassing both the ACA and the regulatory regime, the latter of which is under control of the sitting President.
I just find it amazing that despite this so called law being in effect for years now, there are no parts of Obamacare that cannot be changed at the whim of its enforcers. Cannot this be used against them in the court of law if it’s citizens fail to comply? I guarantee you that, when hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people are about to be “fined” for non participation or making too much money, those fines will be retracted as well. This might have been a great law in the halls of the White House and it’s affiliate ivory towers, but it obviously is a poorly written law to take effect in this thing we people call Life.
Thank you. That is what the King vs. Burwell case is about: The Administration paying subsidies in states where the law does not permit it.
I agree john but unfortunately I think the court will rule against the plaintiffs…i think the court will say the federal goverment is standing in the shoes of the state.
They will say the state chose to establish there exchange with healthcare.gov..effectively making it the state exchange…
The plaintiffs should have attacked the legality of cms selling medicare advantage plans as far back as 2005 and for selling under age 65 plans through healthcare.gov. without being licensed in the states they sell in….
Don’t ne fooled. having studied the affordable care act for the past few years and dealing with the ever changing mandates nothing about the law is legal…if the republicans truly wanted to shut this law down they could..The reason they have not is because it is popular to say repeal and replace…
The easiest way to attach the affordable care act is to attack it by state laws. 36 state could make the affordable care act void if they would follow existing state laws as written.
the affordable care act prempts state laws in every area except for licensing and solvency….licensing is where the state suits should start. CMS nor HHS currently hold state licenses to sell or solicit insurance in any state. They are breaking state licensing laws by selling insurance products through there sites healthcare.gov and cms.gov. Without proper state license that are not preempted by the affordable care act or the medicare advantage legislation ..