Earlier this week, the Obama administration enacted a 24-hour extension, from midnight on Monday to Tuesday, for people to sign up and start receiving health coverage by Jan. 1, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Originally, if people wanted to purchase health insurance with coverage effective by the new year, they had to do so before midnight on Monday. However, the delay allowed people to sign up for coverage through Tuesday, which resulted in a surge of more than 850,000 visits to the HealthCare.gov website, according to the report.
The delay came as a surprise to health insurers, as some spokespeople said they weren't informed of the move until Monday, according to the report.
President Obama told reporters last Friday more than 500,000 people signed up for health insurance through HealthCare.gov during the first three weeks of December. Enrollment numbers have been lower than anticipated due to the many technical problems that have plagued the federal exchange site. However, federal officials have made "substantial progress" in repairing HealthCare.gov, which can now support 50,000 users at a time, according to an HHS progress report.
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